FTC approves settlement with Google over YouTube kids privacy violations

Apparently, the Federal Trade Commission has finalized a settlement with Google in its investigation into YouTube for violating federal data privacy laws for children. The settlement — backed by the agency’s three Republicans and opposed by its two Democrats — finds that Google inadequately protected kids who used its video-streaming service and improperly collected their data in breach of the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act, or COPPA, which prohibits the tracking and targeting of users younger than 13, the people said. The company is expected to pay a multimillion-dollar fine, but the exact amount and the contours of the FTC’s settlement are unclear. The matter now rests in the hands of the Justice Department, which rarely upends the FTC’s settlements with companies under its watch.