SAN FRANCISCO ― A US appeals court revived a lawsuit accusing Alphabet Inc’s Google and several other companies of violating the privacy of children under age 13 by tracking their YouTube activity without parental consent, in order to send them targeted advertising.
The 9th US Circuit Court of Appeals in Seattle said Congress did not intend to pre-empt state law-based privacy claims by adopting the federal Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act, or COPPA.
That law gives the Federal Trade Commission and state attorneys general, but not private plaintiffs, the authority to regulate the online collection of personal data about children under age 13.
The lawsuit, according to Reuters, alleged that Google’s data collection violated similar state laws, and that YouTube content providers such as Hasbro Inc, Mattel Inc, the Cartoon Network and DreamWorks Animation lured children to their channels, knowing that they would be tracked.
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