After a research report last week found that YouTube’s advertising practices had the potential to undercut the privacy of children watching children’s videos, the company said it limited the collection of viewer data and did not serve targeted ads on such videos.
Under a federal privacy law, however, children’s online services must obtain parental consent before collecting personal information from users under 13 to target them with ads — a commitment YouTube extended to anyone watching a children’s video.
Now Fairplay, a prominent children’s group, is challenging the company’s privacy statements.
The group said it had used advertising placement tools from YouTube’s parent company, Google, to run a $10 ad campaign this month targeted at different groups of adults, exclusively on children’s video channels.
In total, the group’s ads were placed 1,446 times on YouTube children’s video channels.
Persons:
”, Tom ”, Fairplay
Organizations:
Google, YouTube