The illegal harvesting of children’s data was
“extremely lucrative” for Google, Chopra wrote
in his dissent. Like the recent settlement with
Facebook, he asserted, the Google deal has
“no individual accountability, insufficient
remedies to address the company’s financial
incentives, and a fine that still allows the
company to profit from its lawbreaking.”
Experts who study and advocate for the
safety of children online decried reports of
the FTC’s settlement with Google that
circulated last week.
The Center for Digital Democracy called the
reported fine of $150 million to $200 million
“woefully low,” terming Google’s violation of
the law “egregious.”
“A small amount like this would effectively
reward Google for engaging in massive and
illegal data collection without any regard to
children’s safety,” deputy director Katharina
Kopp said in a statement.
Indeed, the fine will barely dent Google’s
finances. Google’s parent company, Alphabet,
made a profit of $30.7 billion on revenue of
$136.8 billion last year.
The federal government has increased
scrutiny of big tech companies in the last
two years — especially questioning how
the tech giants collect and use personal
information from their billions of customers.
Many of the huge Silicon Valley companies
are also under antitrust investigations aimed
at determining whether the companies have
unlawfully stifled competition.