Google to Pay $8.25M Settlement Over Child Data Tracking in Play Store

Is your child’s data safe? Google settles for $8.25M over claims it tracked kids under 13 without parental consent. See if your family is eligible for a payment.

It looks like Google is opening its wallet again. The tech giant has agreed to pay $8.25 million to settle a class-action lawsuit that claimed it was secretly collecting data from children. This case focused on how the tech giant handled the personal details of kids under the age of 13 who used apps from the Google Play Store.

****Why the Lawsuit Was Filed****

The legal trouble centred on a program called “Designed for Families” (DFF). This was supposed to be a safe space where parents could find kid-friendly games. To be part of it, developers had to follow a law called COPPA (Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act), which requires companies to get a parent’s permission before gathering any personal info from kids under 13.

Many of these apps used a Google-owned advertising tool called AdMob, which was reportedly gathering data like a child’s location (within five meters), device IDs, and IP addresses without asking parents first. The lawsuit, originally filed in June 2023, specifically named games like Fun Kid Racing and GummyBear and Friends Speed Racing from developer Tiny Lab Productions.

According to court records, Google was warned about these privacy issues as far back as 2018. Despite this, the group of six minors who brought the suit claim Google allowed the tracking to continue through 2021. They argue Google “purportedly” created the DFF program to protect kids but actually used it to earn billions in advertising revenue from targeted ads.

****Not Just a One-Time Blunder****

What’s concerning here is that this isn’t an isolated incident. Just this month, a judge finalised a much bigger $30 million deal involving YouTube. That case was even more high-profile because it involved popular channels like Cartoon Network, Mattel, and Hasbro. This shows an ongoing pattern- Google collects the data now and deals with the fines later.

If you’re a parent, you might be eligible for a payment from the new $8.25 million fund. Estimates suggest anywhere from 3.8 million to 10 million kids were affected. However, if you live in New Mexico, you are likely excluded because that state already settled its own $5 million case with Google in 2021.

A sigh of relief is that the government is finally tightening the leash. By April 2026, companies must follow stricter rules that include protecting biometric data like face scans. Whether a few million dollars is enough to make a company that earns billions change its ways is still up for debate, but at least the rules are finally catching up to the technology.

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