Google in general, and YouTube specifically has had a complaint filed against it with the Federal Trade Commission for failing to comply with the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA). The complaint was filed by a coalition of 23 different consumer groups who say that Google isn’t even making any type of real effort to comply with COPPA.
The coalition includes a variety of important groups including The Center for Digital Democracy, Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood, Berkeley Media Studies Group, Common Sense, Consumer Action, Consumers Union (associated with consumer Reports), Corporate Accountability, Consumer Watchdog, Parents Across America, Parents Television Council, and many others.
In the complaint the group says that YouTube is bringing in ‘untold’ amounts of money from the fact that they are gathering billions of data points on many millions of children.
This complaint is part of a larger trend where people are starting to push back against large corporations and how they are collecting and using data. Facebook has been in the news for these issues, and CEO Mark Zuckerberg is even scheduled to speak to congress about it very soon.
Whether you use YouTube in your marketing, or you gather customer data on your own web properties, it is important to be aware of these issues so you can avoid any negative impacts.
