New Mexico Suing Google & Twitter for Knowingly and Illegally Exploiting Children Online
The state of New Mexico has filed a lawsuit against Google and others for willfully breaking the law to exploit the collection of children’s data online.
By Matt Agorist
TheFreeThoughtProject.com
September 17, 2018
As YouTube, Google, and Twitter crack down on peaceful channels, censor alternative media, and allow child exploitation videos to flourish, New Mexico has filed a lawsuit against them and several app developers for illegally collecting data from children under the age of 13 without parental consent.
According to UPI, New Mexico Attorney General Balderas said the companies are violating the 1998 Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA), a federal law, by collecting and selling the data on children.
“These apps can track where children live, play, and go to school with incredible precision,” Balderas said of the insidious practice. “These multi-million-dollar tech companies partnering with app developers are taking advantage of New Mexican children, and the unacceptable risk of data breach and access from third parties who seek to exploit and harm our children will not be tolerated in New Mexico.”
Tiny Lab Productions, MoPub, AerServ, InMobi PTE, AppLovin and IronSource are also named in the lawsuit.
The lawsuit comes on the heals of a study that showed over 6,000 apps violate COPPA regulations.
As the Free Thought Project reported earlier this year, YouTube was already found to be in violation of COPPA when an independent coalition of advocacy groups conducted their own investigation.
The coalition is made up of groups including the Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood (CCFC), the Center for Digital Democracy and 21 other organizations. Within their complaint, the coalition alleges that despite Google claiming YouTube is only for children 13-years-old and over—it knows younger children use the site and it targets them—illegally.
According to COPPA, it is illegal for any operator of a website or online service or a portion thereof that is directed to children, or that has actual knowledge that it collects information from children, from collecting, using or disclosing personal information from a child unless the operator gives parents notice of its data collection practices and obtains verifiable parental consent before collecting the data.
However, according to the complaint filed by the coalition, Google is knowingly violating this law.
The Rest…HERE
