Google will pay $30 million to settle a lawsuit over collecting children’s data

Google will pay $30 million to settle a lawsuit claiming it violated children’s privacy on YouTube by collecting personal data without parental consent and using it for targeted ads.

The class-action settlement was filed on Monday, August 18, in federal court in San Jose, California. Google has agreed to the settlement but denies any wrongdoing. The deal still needs approval from US Magistrate Judge Susan van Keulen of the Northern District of California to take effect.

Google faces tough actions after violating children’s privacy on YouTube 

As reported by Cryptopolitan earlier, Google agreed to a $1.375 billion settlement with Texas over allegations it unlawfully tracked users’ facial recognition data, location history, and Chrome Incognito activity. The deal marked the largest state-level data privacy settlement against Google, far surpassing the previous record of $93 million.

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton announced the settlement, which resolves two separate lawsuits accusing the tech giant of illegally collecting geolocation, biometric, and private browsing information. Paxton emphasized that the outcome sets a new precedent, dwarfing all prior state settlements with Google over similar privacy violations.

Back in 2019, Google encountered a similar scenario whereby the tech giant was expected to pay a fine of $170 million to settle a lawsuit that accused it of breaching federal laws by unlawfully accessing children’s personal details.

Apart from the fine, the tech company was also expected to amend some of its practices. Even after this, some critics raised concerns that the settlement terms were too soft. The US Federal Trade Commission and Letitia James, the Attorney General of New York, made these allegations against Google. 

In the case of this lawsuit, the parents or guardians of 34 children whose details were unlawfully accessed by Google presented themselves in front of a judge to make their complaints. 

According to them, the tech giant had gone against several state laws by permitting content creators to entice children with cartoons, nursery rhymes, and other entertaining material only to gather their personal information, even after being involved in the 2019 settlement.

Following the above claims, Judge van Keulen decided to look into the case. Due to insufficient evidence connecting the accused content creators to Google’s alleged data collection, the judge was forced to dismiss the claims in January. These content creators included DreamWorks Animation, Cartoon Network, Hasbro, and Mattel.

After the dismissal, mediation commenced the following month, resulting in the recent proposed settlement terms.

Google’s alleged data collection raises concerns about children’s safety on social media 

The children affected by Google’s alleged data collection were all based in the United States and under 13. The period in question spans from July 1, 2013, to April 1, 2020, when they were active on YouTube.

Plaintiffs’ lawyers estimate that the class action could have involved between 35 and 45 million individuals. They noted that if just 1% to 2% of those eligible filed claims, payouts could amount to roughly $30 to $60 per person—before legal costs and other charges are deducted. Legal fees alone are expected to reach as high as $9 million.

The lawsuit, C.H. et al v. Google LLC et al, was filed in the US District Court for the Northern District of California under case number 19-07016. Google’s agreement to settle comes nearly a year after Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton secured a $1.4 billion settlement from Meta over the unauthorized use of biometric data from Facebook and Instagram users. Commenting on the case, Paxton emphasized that Big Tech is not above the law.

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