• by Wendy Davis  @wendyndavis, January 13, 2025

Google must face claims that it violated children's privacy by tracking their YouTube activity in order to serve targeted ads, a federal judge in California confirmed Monday.

The ruling, issued Monday by U.S. District Court Magistrate Judge Susan van Keulen, came in a dispute dating to 2019, when California resident Nicole Hubbard sued the company on on behalf of her 5-year-old child, who allegedly watched YouTube channels aimed at young children.

Her class-action complaint -- later joined by other parents -- came around two months after Google agreed to pay $170 million to settle allegations by the Federal Trade Commission and New York Attorney General that YouTube wrongly collected data via tracking cookies from viewers younger than 13.

The parents' complaint included a claim that Google engaged in “intrusion upon seclusion” -- a privacy charge that can be brought in several states, and involves “highly offensive” conduct.

U.S. District Court Judge Beth Labson Freeman in San Jose initially dismissed the case, ruling that the lawsuit was foreclosed by the federal Children's Online Privacy Protection Act, which only authorizes suits by the FTC and attorneys general.

In 2023, the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals reinstated the matter, ruling that the federal children's privacy law doesn't prevent people from bringing private lawsuits for related claims rooted in state laws -- such as intrusion upon seclusion.

Soon after that decision, class counsel alleged in an amended complaint that Google and other companies engaged in “highly offensive” violations of privacy norms in more than a dozen states, and violated consumer-protection laws in various states.

Google again sought dismissal, arguing that the parents couldn't show that the companies ran afoul of privacy standards -- in part because the alleged data collection and use “was clearly disclosed and involved data elements routinely captured as part of internet browsing activity.”

Van Keulen rejected that argument for now, ruling that if the allegations in the complaint were proven true, they could show that Google “engaged in highly offensive conduct.”

Hubbard and the other parents also sued YouTube channel operators, including Cartoon Network, DreamWorks, Mattel and Hasbro.

Van Keulen dismissed claims against the channel operators, writing that the allegations regarding data collection “focus on Google's conduct.”

“Plaintiffs base their claims on the collection of their data,” she wrote. “Unquestionably, the channel owners did not engage in that collection.”

Van Keulen indicated last month that she was inclined to allow the parents to proceed against Google and dismiss the claims against the channel operators, but didn't officially rule on the matter until Monday.