• by Wendy Davis , 6 hours ago

A federal judge has granted preliminary approval to a class-action settlement requiring Google to pay $8.25 million to resolve allegations over data collection from children.

In a ruling issued late last week, U.S. District Court Judge P. Casey Pitts in the Northern District of California said the deal was “fair, reasonable, and adequate."

"If the parties had proceeded to trial, plaintiffs faced several potentially expensive or time-consuming risks, including contested legal and factual questions, litigation expenses, and dueling expert witnesses," Pitts wrote. "Given those risks, the Court is satisfied that the proposed settlement falls within the range of possible approval and warrants comment from class members."

Pitts' preliminary approval order contemplates small cash awards to class members who file claims. Class members would include all U.S. residents who, from 2015 through January 2026, were under 13 when they downloaded or used a Google Play app, and whose personal information was collected or shared.

The amount those people s could recover depends on how many file claims, but plaintiffs estimate that the figure will range between 83 cents and $2.17 per person.

If granted final approval, the deal will resolve a 2023 lawsuit brought by parents of six young children who allegedly downloaded apps from Android's Play Store -- including games developed by Tiny Lab Productions, such as Fun Kid Racing and Monster Truck Racing.

Those apps were designated by Google as “Designed for Families,” a former program that required developers to certify compliance with the federal Children's Online Privacy Protection Act. That law prohibits app developers from knowingly collecting personal data, including device identifiers, from children younger than 13 without their parents' consent.

The parents, led by California resident Jen Turner, alleged in a class-action complaint that Google's AdMob wrongly collected smartphone data from those apps, and that Google should have known that the data was coming from children.

Google lost a key legal battle in the case in 2024, when Pitts rejected the company's bid to dismiss the case as untimely.

Google had unsuccessfully argued that it banned Tiny Lab from the Play Store in 2018, and that the statute of limitations for most claims in the lawsuit expired before the suit was filed.

But attorneys for the plaintiffs countered that even if Google banned Tiny Lab, AdMob allegedly continued through 2021 to collect data from children who had downloaded the apps.

Pitts plans to hold a hearing September 24, after which he will decide whether to grant the deal final approval.