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YouTube Is Illegally Collecting Data From Children, Say Advocacy Groups (gizmodo.com)
Nearly two-dozen privacy and children's advocacy groups have filed a Federal Trade Commission complaint against YouTube, alleging the platform of illegally collecting data from children. From a report: The groups, led by the Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood (CCFC), allege YouTube is violating the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) by collecting data from children under 13 without parents' permission.
"It's just fundamentally unfair," Josh Golin, executive director of the CCFC, told Gizmodo, "to use Google's powerful behavioral targeting on a child that doesn't yet understand what's going on." COPPA requires platforms "give parents notice of its data collection practices, and obtain verifiable parental consent before collecting the data." But, as Golin argues, YouTube violates COPPA because it doesn't differentiate between videos marketed to children and the rest of the site.
"It's just fundamentally unfair," Josh Golin, executive director of the CCFC, told Gizmodo, "to use Google's powerful behavioral targeting on a child that doesn't yet understand what's going on." COPPA requires platforms "give parents notice of its data collection practices, and obtain verifiable parental consent before collecting the data." But, as Golin argues, YouTube violates COPPA because it doesn't differentiate between videos marketed to children and the rest of the site.
I am 13. Judging from the fact that all the ads I ever see are for drug treatment centers and "learn to code" packages, I think Slashdot may be collecting my data.
You are welcome on my lawn.
COPPA requires platforms "give parents notice of its data collection practices, and obtain verifiable parental consent before collecting the data."
Naw it doesn't. COPPA only regulates collection, use, and/or disclosure of the personal information from and about children on the Internet.
So collecting data that isn't the child's own personal info is not subject to COPPA or the FTC... Behavioral ad targetting may say things like "Your device/browser session 48592589239520 has recently visited Webpage14262362,Webpage211,Video30048960007,Video49623400057, and Video265352978917, therefore... we predict Advert123467 might be a good one to show. And that's NOT based on collecting any personal information."
"It's just fundamentally unfair," Josh Golin, executive director of the CCFC, told Gizmodo, "to use Google's powerful behavioral targeting on a child that doesn't yet understand what's going on."
I don't think even the average adult, including probably Josh Golin understand What's REALLY going on. Only Google knows exactly how they're targeting ads. There's no "fairness" deserved or necessary here --- they'll simply observe viewing patterns and use it to show the most effective ads.
My nephew watched 1 (one) toy review video on my youtube client.
Next time I fired it up literally every single recommendation was for toy reviews, about 50% of them from a single channel.
Months of TED talks, PBS space time and boring hour long lectures on late bronze age collapse had been obliterated in under 5 minutes.
My conclusion is that Youtube knows which side their bread is buttered on, an it isn't the side of 30-somethings with disposable income and a penchant for impulse buying expensive gadgets.
The group isn't saying that YouTube is intentionally targeting children. The group is saying that like all videos, YouTube collects data and targets ads towards content regardless if the content is more geared towards children or adults. Unless YouTube screens every single video for content, it would be hard to know if a video is indeed for children. Some creators like The Disney Channel will definitely be creating content for children but for others it's not clear. The second part which is more nuanced is that YouTube requires a minimum age of 13 for the site, but that requires a user account to know whether the user is at least 13. Many people don't bother signing into accounts to use YouTube so YouTube will never know.
YouTube requires users be at least 13 years old when joining the site, and makes clear its ad policies that it bars collecting data from children under 13. The CCFC complaint, however, notes that this age requirement only applies to users creating an account. Signed out, users of any age can watch videos (thus, potentially have their data collected) without any age check. As Golin tells Gizmodo, the FTC will ultimately decide whether to fine YouTube and, crucially, for how much.
Well, there's spam egg sausage and spam, that's not got much spam in it.