United States of America: Lawsuit relating to Google's collection of children's personal data on YouTube without parental consent was filed at Northern District Court of California (Hubbard v Google LLC) (Case No. 5:19-cv-07016-SVK)

On 18 August 2025, a seventh amended class action complaint was filed in the US Northern District Court of California against Google LLC and YouTube LLC, seeking damages on behalf of children under 13 who watched child-directed content on YouTube between July 2013 and April 2020. The complaint alleges that despite the September 2019 settlement with the Federal Trade Commission requiring Google to pay USD 170 million in penalties, the company continued collecting personal information from millions of American children without parental consent for four additional months. The data was used for behavioural advertising that generated substantial profits through revenue-sharing arrangements with content creators. The lawsuit seeks class certification for nationwide and multi-state subclasses, claiming violations of intrusion upon seclusion, invasion of privacy, and state privacy laws across multiple jurisdictions. The plaintiffs alleged that Google's conduct was offensive and constituted an egregious breach of social norms by exploiting vulnerable children through cartoons, nursery rhymes, and other child-directed content to collect intimate, deeply intrusive data points for commercial gain.