WASHINGTON (DPA) – YouTube has been ordered to pay US$170 million (S$235 million) to settle allegations that it illegally collected personal information from children without their parents’ consent, the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) announced on Wednesday (Sept 4).

The online video platform was accused of collecting personal data in the form of “persistent identifiers,” also known as cookies, which are used to track users across the Internet.

The data was collected from viewers of channels directed at children without first notifying parents and getting their consent.

YouTube has earned millions of dollars by using cookies to deliver targeted ads to viewers of the channels, according to a complaint filed by the FTC and the state of New York.

The settlement requires Google, which owns YouTube, to pay US$136 million to the FTC and US$34 million to the state of New York.

By collecting personal information without consent, YouTube has allegedly violated a US regulation designed to protect children’s online privacy, known as COPPA, the FTC said in a news release.

The penalty is by far the largest amount the FTC has ever obtained in a COPPA case since Congress enacted the law in 1998.

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