YouTube smacked with record $170M fine over children's privacy law (The Daily Charge, 9/4/2019)

Today on the Daily Charge, an ad agency ironically conceptualizes a digital token based privacy system, more privacy concerns with Ring Home Security. And YouTube slapped with a colossal $170 million Dollar fine. [MUSIC] Good morning, and welcome to CNET's Daily Charge. It's Wednesday September 4th. I am Alfred Ng. I'm Brigit Kerry. Let's get to the headlines. [MUSIC] Google will be paying a record $170 million fine to the Federal Trade Commission to settle allegations that YouTube illegally collected personal information from children Without parent's consent. This is the largest find for Children's Online Privacy Protection Act ever and the law came to effect in 1998. It will be $136 million to the FTC and $34 million to New York The allegations were that YouTube violated COPPA by using tracking identifiers on people who watched channels specifically for children, without getting parents' consent. A major part of YouTube. Yeah, that's like a whole Pull economy out there isnt that? Yeah, [LAUGH] And yeah, you're right it is a major part because YouTube earned millions of dollars using those tracking co-keys and delivering targeted ads based on people who watched those videos. Most likely children What's this settlement this basically mean means, you know a lot of trouble for people that make content specifically for children on YouTube. YouTube will have to develop a system where children, targeted channels have to identify themselves.So They won't be able to comment on it, they won't be able to send notifications or anything like that. And the ads aren't gonna be things that can be tracked on your behavior just generic ads. Yeah, and basically $170 million, might sound like a lot but I mean, the votes still came down to three, two with dissenters saying that the find was not strong enough. They make that in 11 hours. Yeah, it's not any money to Google and YouTube. I mean, it's just yeah, Senator Ed Markey, who had written the copper bill back in 1998 had released a statement after the fine came out and noted you know, the FTC like stands for forgetting teens and children arguing that [LAUGH] Spicy. This amounts to nothing more than a slap on the wrist for YouTube and Google. Because you know that they knew. Yeah. It's one thing it's like, " gosh, what a mistake." You know? They knew it was going on in the background. And this law has been around since 98, you said? Yeah. So yeah. It's not like it's a secret you know if anything, this is more so going to impact these channels on YouTube that are making content for children specifically because we're also making a lot of money off of this.>> Anyone who has a kid knows that YouTube and Nursery Rhymes is like, like just a whole economy out there. That's like Playing those wheels on the bus videos over and over again and- The good news is if you have one of those channels, these changes won't be coming for another four months. So you still have a good amount of time to look for alternatives to YouTube. But I mean, good luck. Well, I think it's, okay. It's like aye, moment like okay, maybe we'll finally do something but is this what it took? Okay, yeah. Next up you might be sharing videos from Ring with police because you trust your local officers but those videos can be used for completely unrelated issues. CNET investigation found that ring had been promoting to police that officers could share obtained footage with other agencies. And the company doesn't take responsibility for what happens once officers get those clips. And video requests from police sent through ring the company does not tell people that detail so you don't know when your clip center places being used for other purposes, which is something that privacy advocates worry about. You should be able to know like okay, I give them the right but then you realize you're just waving everything away.>>Yeah we asked two police departments you know have you been sharing this with federal agencies, other police departments. And they've said no, but there are more than 400 police departments partnered with Ring. I mean, we're most likely gonna get down and ask all of them. And they said no, but that's not stopping them for a future case. Yes. Yeah, cuz these police that we reached out to had only really partnered with them in the last six months or so. So if they can share of other agencies there's a concern that you know a clip used to stop a local burglary could also be used by ice on an unrelated person videos background for example. Yeah I know that there's a lot of arguments on like well I have nothing to hide and this is not good that it can Stop someone who's terrible in the neighborhood. But what concerns me after reading your great report, [APPLAUSE] Golf Club, Golf Club is that [LAUGH] Is that, there is no wording for the consumer to say that this is happening. We need more transparency. If you want to participate, you just need to be, it all has to be spelled out that like my footage. If I send to A certain group can isn't it, can go anywhere. There's no time that will be deleted that kind of thing. You got to think about the far reaching like the step five and six not just the here and now. Yeah the argument is that you know, ring keeps saying that people give this footage to Officers with their complete consent. But how much of there is a really consent when you don't know like everything that you're giving up. And finally, here's an idea for online privacy from the people that develop the environment of constant tracking we live in today, The Interactive Advertising Bureau proposed a digital token identifier for every user online that people can use to tell advertisers their preferences including opting up. So right now the internet is structured so you're track by ads and cookies wherever you go. Like this is most likely on this website as well. The token. The token idea is a single identifier instead of multiple trackers across a single website, and the IAB says you have the ability to tell advertisers to **** off in the settings.privacy standards have obviously become an issue like in recent months, as YouTube learned this morning from its settlement, The industry is seeing the backlash and looking for solutions. Now, this is still a proposal. But I mean, it's interesting no one's really suggested, hey, don't track me at all. I mean, wouldn't that be nice? Mm-hh. Yeah, exactly. I like the concept. I think it's clean but I know it's like you can't just turn it off overall, but maybe this is the middle ground It's hard not to feel like there's some kind of strings attached with this considering that, you know, just a few years ago we thought, Hey, Isn't this great? Everything is free. And I'm not paying for any of this. And now we found out we're being tracked all over. It kinda just seems like history repeating itself. Years down the line we'll find out something about this identifier that we didn't know before. It's the level of tracking that can creep you out once you start getting how deep they go. I don't mind you knowing that I like YNZ TV shows but we start getting really deep into what I'm shopping. Yeah, that's when I got to pump the brakes For the daily charge. I'm Alpha Gang. I'm Bridget Carrie. Thanks for joining us.