YouTube and Google to Pay Record $170M Fine

YouTube reached a settlement with the Federal Trade Commission stemming from allegations it gathered data from “viewers of child-directed channels” without parental consent. The settlement requires Google (YouTube’s parent company) and YouTube to pay $136 million to the FTC and $34 million to New York. The penalty, the largest ever in a case involving the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act, has been criticized for being too lenient.