YouTube has been fined for violating the privacy of children. In particular, it was accused of violating privacy through commercial advertising addressed to users under the age of 13.

The Federal Trade Commission, the American consumer protection authority, has reached an agreement with Google, the company that owns YouTube, to pay a multimillion-dollar fine.
The violation concerns the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act, which prohibits the tracking of users under the age of 13. YouTube has allowed commercial targeting towards children and their exposure to harmful and inappropriate content.
In particular, according to the Federal Trade Commission, YouTube collected sensitive data from minors and used them to reach the children through targeted advertising and videos that were not appropriate for their age.   

The infringement was discovered following some complaints arising from consumer organizations and privacy associations through an appeal filed by law firms.        
This is not the first time that the company Google has been fined for violation of data protection rules.

These events show a general increased attention from the authority to the bond existing between technology and data protection issues.  This increased attention led, ultimately, to the issue of  GDPR.

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