Viacom, Google Children’s Privacy Case Is on the Way Out
Consumers may amend claims that Google and Viacom violate children’s privacy by using cookies to track their Internet use and target them for ads, a federal judge ruled.
U.S. District Judge Stanley Chesler in in Newark, N.J.., presides over the multidistrict litigation against Google and Viacom, the parent company of MTV, Comedy Central, Paramount Pictures and Nickelodeon, among others.
One early class action alleged that the defendants secretly placed a doubleclick.net cookie “id” on the computers of children who registered and created profiles on Viacom-operated websites like nick.com, nickjr.com, and neopets.com.
In addition to tracking the children’s communications to those and other websites, Viacom assigned each user a so-called “rugrat” code based on his gender and age, according to the complaint.
The cookies let Google keep records of videos kids watch, then show “targeted advertising to them based on their individualized web usage communications, and videos requested and obtained,” the complaint said.
More: Courthouse News Service