iStock.com/fizkes
As part of a settlement with the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and the State of New York’s Attorney General’s office, Alphabet [
In a series of Twitter posts today, Senator Ed Markey (D-MA) excoriated the FTC for letting Alphabet and its subsidiaries off so lightly.
YouTube knowingly broke federal law by tracking kids in order to rake in advertising dollars without the requisite notice to and permission from parents. But the FTC let Google off the hook with a drop-in-the-bucket fine. Not a single Google executive or investor will bat an eye.
— Ed Markey (@SenMarkey) September 4, 2019
The FTC should have issued a colossal fine that fits Google’s crime and demanded that Google make significant structural changes to their business practices.
— Ed Markey (@SenMarkey) September 4, 2019
The FTC should have required Google to delete all data it has collected from children under 13 because it never should have amassed an untold amount of this data in the first place.
— Ed Markey (@SenMarkey) September 4, 2019
The FTC should have prohibited Google from launching any new kids’ offerings before review and approval by independent experts because Google has forfeited the benefit of the doubt when it comes to putting kids’ well-being first.
— Ed Markey (@SenMarkey) September 4, 2019
The FTC should have required annual public audits into Google’s children’s privacy practices because parents deserve to know if this tech behemoth continues to track kids.
— Ed Markey (@SenMarkey) September 4, 2019
Where the FTC fails, Congress must act. We can start by passing my COPPA 2.0 legislation w/ @SenHawleyPress that extends privacy protections to teens, creates an eraser button so that young users can eliminate personal info they’ve posted, and bans targeted ads directed at kids.
— Ed Markey (@SenMarkey) September 4, 2019
The settlement calls for Alphabet to pay $136 million to the FTC and $34 million to New York.
In the latest 12 months ended June 30, 2019, Alphabet had net income of $34.7 billion on revenue of $148.3 billion, with $121.1 billion in cash, cash equivalents and marketable securities.
As Sen. Markey stated, the FTC failed miserably in this settlement. The only message that Alphabet executives heard was that the company can continue to violate the law with impunity and continue to mine children’s data for profit without parental permission.
Both GOOG and GOOGL closed up 1% today.
Shame on the FTC.
__
Source: Equities News
