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FTC's Latest Fine Of YouTube Over COPPA Violations Shows That COPPA And Section 230 Are On A Collision Course

FTC's Latest Fine Of YouTube Over COPPA Violations Shows That COPPA And Section 230 Are On A Collision Course

5 years ago
Anonymous $4ckUSNo_FL

https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20190905/17343942934/ftcs-latest-fine-youtube-over-coppa-violations-shows-that-coppa-section-230-are-collision-course.shtml

As you probably heard, earlier this week, the FCC fined Google/YouTube for alleged COPPA violations in regards to how it collected data on kids. You can read the details of the complaint and proposed settlement (which still needs to be approved by a judge, but that's mostly a formality). For the most part, people responded to this in the same way that they responded to the FTC's big Facebook fine. Basically everyone hates it -- though for potentially different reasons. Most people hate it because they think it's a slap on the wrist, won't stop such practices and just isn't painful enough for YouTube to care. On the flip side, some people hate it because it will force YouTube to change its offerings for no good reason at all and in a manner that might actually lead to more privacy risks and less content for children.

They might all be right. As I wrote about the Facebook fine and other issues related to privacy, almost every attempt to regulate privacy tends to make things worse, in part, because people keep misunderstanding how privacy works. Also, most of the "complaints" about how this "isn't enough," are really not complaints directed at the FTC, but at Congress, because the FTC can only do so much under its current mandate.