Google has agreed to pay $30 million to settle a lawsuit that accused YouTube of illegally collecting data from children under 13 without parental consent.
The case claimed YouTube violated the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) by tracking young users to deliver targeted ads.
The settlement was filed in a federal court in San Jose and still needs approval by a judge. It applies to U.S. users who watched YouTube before age 13 between July 1, 2013, and April 1, 2020. Lawyers estimate that as many as 45 million people could be eligible for compensation. If only a small percentage of them file claims, each payout may be around $30 to $60, before legal fees.
This is not the first time Google has faced penalties over children’s data. In 2019, Google and YouTube paid a record $170 million settlement and agreed to update their policies for child-directed content.
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