There must be utter chaos with leadership at Youtube LLC. I was under the impression that Youtube was going to announce that they would seek parental consent for COPPA compliance. The FTC has said, "If you will use a child’s personal information only for internal purposes and won’t disclose it, you may use a method known as “email plus.” Under that method, send an email to the parent and have them respond with their consent. Then you must send a confirmation to the parent via email, letter, or phone call. If you use email plus, you must let the parent know they can revoke their consent anytime."
It is December 10th, 2019, and they have done nothing to take ownership of their illegal acts, but punish content creators. They have destroyed kid channels with the adjusted algorithm, made new kid videos disappear, and now are acting like the FTC needs to do something to fix the problem. As the days dwindle down, I am starting to wonder who is actually running this operation. How can an organization handle such complicated technical issues when they can't even fix the simple problems. It is so frustrating and difficult to comprehend the level of incompetency at Youtube LLC.
No. Not utter chaos. I disagree with everyone. Especially after the last article where Youtube was waiting for FTC to clarify. It’s becoming clear this was masterfully handled by Youtube. They have been pulling the strings this whole time making us dance.
The goal was never to concede.
Clue 1 is the settlement because they did not have to admit fault. They could stop tracking data entirely on their own, but then that means they are guilty of tracking data. They dont want to admit fault so they came up with the convoluted nonsolution of creators self tagging videos. Not admitting fault is the crux of their strategy.
By stoking chaos and poking creators, Youtube generated the panic that usually ensues after every adpocalypse. Clue 2 was Youtube instigating conflict between content creators and FTC. Youtube devised a way for the FTC to blame and target content creators for data privacy violations while escaping responsibility (with the new “for kids“ tagging option). Then at the same time Youtube told content creators their hands were tied and pointed to the FTC as the source of the problem. Meanwhile throughout all of this Youtube secretly continued to collect data on minors because the tagging tool does not solve the problem and FTC is not tech saavy enough to know how data collection works on Youtube.
And we played our part well. To Youtubes great fortune, families across america spammed COPPA. The FTC grossly underestimated how many people would be affected and walked back many of their comments like shooting youtubers in a barrel, who would be fined, how much the fine would be, etc. And clue 3 is this article where Youtube publicly announces FTC needs to clarify the law because its too confusing. This is Youtube kicking the FTC while they are down and hoping the rest of us direct our ire on the FTC some more. This is no longer about Youtube collecting data on minors. This is about that damn FTC and big government making laws that dont make sense.
Bravo youtube. Bravo.
Little has been talked about a recent law that was passed called the CCPA (california consumer privacy act) similar to Europes right to be forgotten law (but less stringent), with some COPPA elements too. If you read the amendments that followed, you can tell the CCPA was gutted in a way that allows Google (and probably facebook) to continue selling ads like normal. The law hasnt gone into affect yet and the original author of the CCPA is already calling for a new CCPA because he believes the tech giants rendered it useless.
these corporations are pros. They have big money. Lots of lobbyists. They know how to oil the system.
The more I watch this coppa ftc unfold the more it seems like Youtube is expertly navigating the system and playing the right cards to do business as usual.
remember the main goal of a corporation is to maximize profits.
