The settlement, filed in a federal court in San Jose, California, still needs approval from Magistrate Judge Susan van Keulen before payments can begin.

The case was brought by the parents of 34 children, who claimed that Google violated dozens of state laws and the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA). 

They said the company profited by tracking under-13 viewers who were drawn to cartoons, nursery rhymes, and similar content. These allegations stretch back years, covering YouTube activity between July 2013 and April 2020.

If approved, the settlement could apply to as many as 35 to 45 million children across the United States. Lawyers estimate that if even 1% of eligible families make claims, each could receive between $30 and $60 before legal costs are deducted. The legal team has also signalled plans to request up to $9 million in fees.

Google has denied wrongdoing, maintaining its stance even as it moves to resolve the matter. The company previously faced similar scrutiny in 2019, when it paid $170 million to the Federal Trade Commission and New York Attorney General Letitia James. 

That earlier case required Google to change how YouTube handled child-directed content, stop collecting data without parental consent, and promote the YouTube Kids app. Critics at the time argued the penalties were too soft given the scale of violations.

In this latest case, claims against third-party content providers such as Hasbro, Mattel, Cartoon Network, and DreamWorks Animation were dismissed earlier this year due to lack of evidence tying them directly to data collection. Mediation with Google began shortly after, leading to the current deal.

The financial weight of the settlement may be small for Google’s parent company, Alphabet, which reported $62.7 billion in profit on $186.7 billion in revenue in just the first half of 2025. YouTube alone generated nearly $10 billion in advertising sales last quarter, showing how vital child-friendly content has been to its growth.

The post Google to Pay $30 Million in YouTube Child Privacy Settlement appeared first on Tech | Business | Economy.

The lawsuit, filed on August 19th, 2024, in the California federal court, alleges that Anthropic included pirated copies of books by the plaintiffs – Andrea Bartz, Charles Graeber, and Kirk Wallace Johnson – and potentially hundreds of thousands of other copyrighted works in their training data for Claude.

This lawsuit adds to the list of copyright infringement issues against tech companies developing large language models (LLMs). 

Similar lawsuits have been filed against OpenAI and Meta Platforms, accusing them of using copyrighted content from authors, visual artists, and news outlets to train their respective chatbots.

For Anthropic, this is the second copyright infringement lawsuit it is facing. Last year, music publishers accused the company of using copyrighted song lyrics without permission to train Claude.

The lawsuit against Anthropic claims the company “built a multi-billion dollar business on the backs of stolen intellectual property,” referring to the alleged inclusion of pirated books in Claude’s training data. 

Anthropic, which has financial backing from tech giants like Amazon, Google, and former cryptocurrency billionaire Sam Bankman-Fried, has yet to respond to the lawsuit.

The authors are seeking unspecified monetary damages and a permanent injunction to prevent Anthropic from further misusing their copyrighted works.

The post Authors Sue AI Company Anthropic for Allegedly Stealing Content to Train Chatbot appeared first on Tech | Business | Economy.

The lawsuit, filed in 2020, accused Google of surreptitiously gathering data from individuals using its Chrome web browser in Incognito mode, purportedly without their consent.

According to details revealed in a San Francisco federal court filing, Google has agreed to erase “billions” of data records associated with users’ private browsing sessions.

The settlement also mandates several changes to Google’s disclosures regarding data collection practices, particularly clarifying the visibility of user activity on websites when browsing in Incognito mode. Additionally, Google has said it will allow Incognito mode users to block third-party cookies for the next five years.

Jose Castaneda, a spokesperson for Google, noted the company’s satisfaction with the settlement, dismissing the lawsuit as “meritless.” Castaneda emphasized Google’s drive to user privacy, asserting that data collected during Incognito mode usage was never associated with individual users and would be deleted as part of the settlement.

Despite the plaintiffs’ initial demand for $5 billion in damages, the settlement does not entail monetary compensation from Google. Instead, individuals retain the option to pursue damages by filing their own complaints against the tech giant in U.S. state courts. Already, approximately 50 individuals have initiated such claims, according to plaintiffs’ attorneys.

Attorney David Boies, representing the plaintiffs, hailed the settlement as “groundbreaking,” asserting its significance in driving tech companies to be transparent about data collection and usage practices. The agreement to retroactively delete user information represents a notable concession from Google, given the centrality of user data to its advertising business.

The settlement also averted a trial that was slated for February, an important development for Google as it braces for multiple legal challenges. These include a jury trial in an antitrust lawsuit brought by the U.S. Justice Department and state attorneys general, scheduled for September. 

Another lawsuit from Texas and other states, challenging Google’s ad tech practices, is set for March 2025. Additionally, a federal antitrust trial alleging Google’s monopoly in the online search market is ongoing in Washington.

The settlement points towards the ongoing debate surrounding consumer privacy and data protection in the digital space, a notable precedent for holding industry giants accountable for handling user information.

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