Search engine giant Google and its subsidiary YouTube will pay a record $170 million to settle allegations by the U.S. Federal Trade Commission and the New York Attorney General that the YouTube video-sharing service illegally collected personal information from children without their parents’ consent.
The settlement requires Google and YouTube to pay $136 million to the FTC and $34 million to New York attorney general’s office for allegedly violating the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) Rule.
The $136 million penalties, is by far the largest amount the FTC in a COPPA case since the Congress enacted the law in 1998.
U.S. President Donald Trump in early August said his administration is watching Google ”very closely”, accusing the company of working against his election campaign in 2016 and reelection bid in 2020.
Google denied the president’s allegations.
