- New Mexico AG Hector Balderas reached a settlement with Google LLC to resolve two lawsuits alleging that Google illegally collected the personal information of minors in violation of the federal Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act and New Mexico’s Unfair Practices Act.
- As previously reported, one complaint alleged that Google collected the personal information of minors, such as geolocation and websites visited, when minors used Google’s G Suite, which it provided on the Chromebooks it supplied to New Mexico school districts at no cost.
- A separate complaint alleged that AdMob, Google’s mobile ad platform, allowed a game developer to gather children’s personal data without parental consent.
- According to the AG’s office, under the terms of the settlement, Google will fund a new initiative to promote education, privacy, and safety for children across New Mexico; provide school administrators with tools to protect the data of minor students, including age-based access settings to ensure that such data is not subject to unauthorized collection and disclosure; and more stringently police app developers who mislabel their child-directed apps in Google’s Play Store; among other things.