Authorities to Slam Alexa and Google Assistant over Privacy Issue

The US Federal Trade Commission has slammed a record fine of $170million on YouTube for violating privacy laws for children below the age of 13. Authorities are tightening their grip on these giants and hints suggest that they are now making moves towards the virtual assistants Alexa and Google Assistant too.

The famous streaming platform owned by Google on Wednesday was charged by FTC for illegally collecting children’s data without their parents consent and for violating the federal Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act or COPPA.

There are already grave security concerns in terms of audio recordings against the companies who record the voice of users through their virtual assistants like Alexa, Siri, and Google Assistant and now this draws more attention to the public regarding the issue of privacy.

“Children are highly vulnerable internet users: They can't decipher privacy policies, can't meaningfully consent to what data they share, and are impressionable to targeted advertisements,”said Ashley Boyd, Mozilla's vice president of advocacy.

YouTube which started in 2005 has more than 2 billion visitors in a month and is considered to be the world’s largest video site with more than 500 hours of video being uploaded onto it every minute. According to Government policy, children have to be 13 years or older to use the site, but it’s a widely flouted rule by both parents and children alike.