YouTube, the giant video streaming website, is facing a major legal issue in the United Kingdom where it was accused of breaching the right to privacy of millions of British children, which could cost its parent company, Google, £2.5 billion.
Evidences revealed by The Mail on Sunday point to YouTube harvesting data of underage children without consent and then selling the gathered information to advertisers, effectively violating both the UK and the EU block’s law. The said documents were already in the hands of the High Court.
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YouTube is expected to dispute the complaint, whose one of many arguments would point to the children-friendly version of the platform, YouTube Kids app, which is the alleged victims’ appropriate platform.
In light of the accusation, Google is anticipated to explain the steps it had taken last year involving areas of security on YouTube, such as the notification of parents, restriction of custom-tailored advertisements, and limitation on data collection.
The case that YouTube is facing is unprecedented in all of Europe and is being spearheaded by privacy advocate, Duncan McCann.