Revived Lawsuit Accuses Google, YouTube of Violating Children’s Privacy

A lawsuit that accuses Alphabet Inc.’s Google LLC, YouTube and a number of other companies of violating the privacy of children was revived by a U.S. appeals court today.

According to Reuters, the lawsuit alleges that the companies were tracking the activity of children aged under 13 for ad-targeting purposes, without their parental consent. In its ruling, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Seattle explained that Congress was not trying to pre-empt state law-based privacy claims when it signed into law the federal Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act, known as COPPA. That law allows the Federal Trade Commission and state attorneys general, but not private plaintiffs, to regulate the collection of personal data from children under the age of 13.

The revived lawsuit, Jones et al v. Google LLC, alleges that the search engine giant violated similar state laws. In addition, it claims that YouTube content providers, including The Cartoon Network, DreamWorks Animation, Hasbro Inc. and Mattel Inc., enticed children to watch their channels in the knowledge that their online behavior would be tracked. The lawsuit alleges that Google did not begin complying with COPPA until January 2020, and therefore sought damages for YouTube users aged 13 and younger from July 2013 to April 2020.

Read the source article at siliconangle.com