Google Play Apps Collected Your Kids’ Data Without Permission. Now There’s $8.25M to Claim.
Google and AdMob agreed to pay $8.25 million to settle a class action lawsuit over collecting data on children under 13 through Google Play Store apps, without parental consent. If your child used Play Store apps at any point from April 1, 2015 to the present and was under 13 at the time, you can file a no-proof claim for an estimated $40 to $200 before September 14, 2026. A parent or guardian must file on behalf of any child still under 18.
Settlement at a glance
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New settlements are added to Payout regularly as cases reach the claims stage.
What is the Google Play children’s privacy settlement?
The case is A.B., et al. v. Google LLC, et al. The lawsuit alleged that Google and AdMob, which serves ads inside Google Play Store apps, collected personal data from children under 13 without first obtaining verifiable parental consent, in violation of the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA).
COPPA has required apps and websites directed at children under 13 to get parental consent before collecting personal information since 1998. The lawsuit claimed that many Google Play apps, including those in the “Family” and “Children” categories, continued collecting device identifiers and other user data from young users without that consent across more than a decade of Play Store usage.
Google did not admit wrongdoing. The court granted preliminary approval of the $8.25 million settlement on May 1, 2026. The official administrator is Kroll Settlement Administration. Claims are open through September 14, 2026.
Who qualifies?
You qualify if you are a U.S. resident who, at any time from April 1, 2015 to the present, were under 13 years old and downloaded or used any app from the Google Play Store.
The class period covers more than 11 years of Play Store activity. If your child used any Android app through Google Play before their 13th birthday, they likely qualify. The settlement administrator estimates between 3.8 million and 10 million people fall within the class.
Filing rule for minors: if the eligible person is still under 18 today, a parent or legal guardian must submit the claim form on their behalf. Young adults who were under 13 during the class period and are now 18 or older can file themselves, using their own name and contact information.
How much will you receive?
Court documents estimate $40 to $200 per valid claim. The final figure is pro-rata: the $8.25 million fund gets divided among all approved claimants after attorney fees and administrative costs come out. Fewer claimants means a larger check. More claimants means a smaller one.
For comparison: the YouTube privacy settlement, a separate $30 million Google case for similar COPPA violations on YouTube, drew roughly 1 million valid claims and paid about $30 per person. This Google Play settlement has a smaller fund and a different class. If claim volume stays low relative to the fund size, individual payments could be closer to the $200 ceiling.
Payments go out after the September 14 deadline closes and the court grants final approval. Based on timelines for comparable settlements, most claimants receive payment 6 to 12 months after the filing deadline closes.
How to file your claim
Filing takes about five minutes. Here are the steps:
- 1.Go to COPPAPrivacyClassAction.com, the only court-approved filing site. If you received a notice by mail or email, it includes a class member ID you can use to pre-fill your information.
- 2.Enter your contact information and certify that your child (or you, if you were under 13 during the class period) downloaded or used a Google Play app before the age of 13, between April 1, 2015 and the present.
- 3.If the eligible person is still under 18, a parent or guardian signs and submits the form. Adults filing for themselves complete the form under their own name.
- 4.Submit by September 14, 2026. Paper forms can also be printed from the site and mailed to Kroll Settlement Administration, postmarked by September 14.
Filing is free. If any website or service asks you to pay a fee to access this claim, do not use it. The settlement fund pays directly from Google to approved claimants through Kroll, with no third party taking a cut.
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What Google did and why it violated federal law
Google Play apps in the “Family” category used third-party advertising SDKs, including Google’s own AdMob platform, to collect persistent device identifiers from users. Device identifiers allow advertisers to track a user across sessions, different apps, and devices over time.
For adults, that practice is legal (with proper disclosure). For children under 13, it crosses a federal line. COPPA prohibits collecting personal information from under-13 users without verifiable parental consent. The FTC has taken enforcement action on this repeatedly. In 2019, it levied a $170 million penalty against YouTube for similar COPPA violations on its platform.
The scope of the problem in the Play Store was documented by researchers independently. A 2019 study of the most-downloaded free children’s apps on Google Play found that a significant share had potential COPPA compliance issues. A 2024 analysis by Comparitech identified 181 children’s category apps on Google Play still collecting device IDs without required parental consent.
The class period in this settlement, April 1, 2015 to present, covers the years when this data collection was ongoing. If your child used any Play Store app during that window and was under 13 at the time, they fall within the class.
What this settlement does not cover
This settlement covers only data collected through Google Play Store apps. It does not cover YouTube (which reached its own $30 million settlement for COPPA violations, with a claim deadline that passed in January 2026), Google Search, Gmail, or other Google products outside the Play Store.
Filing a claim here does not affect your eligibility for other open settlements. You can file for this settlement and for any other class action you qualify for at the same time.
Payout is a settlement-discovery app. It does not give legal advice. Filing through any service, including Payout or directly at COPPAPrivacyClassAction.com, does not guarantee eligibility, approval, or a specific payout amount. Eligibility determinations are made by the court-appointed settlement administrator.
Two other Google settlements still open right now
Google is currently paying out on two other large class action settlements that many people have not claimed yet.
The Google Assistant privacy settlement is $68 million. It covers anyone who purchased a Pixel phone, Nest Hub, Nest Mini, or Google Home device in the United States between May 2016 and March 2026, or who was recorded by Google Assistant without purchasing a device. Estimated payouts are $18 to $56 per device. The deadline is August 27, 2026.
Both this Google Play claim and the Google Assistant claim can be filed at the same time. They are separate cases with separate administrators and separate funds. Claiming one does not affect the other. For a full list of open settlements across all companies, see the current open class action settlements guide.
What to expect after you file
After you submit your claim at COPPAPrivacyClassAction.com, you will receive an email confirmation from Kroll. Hold onto that confirmation number. You may receive a follow-up email from Kroll asking you to verify information. If you do, respond promptly, or your claim may be flagged as incomplete.
After September 14, the administrator processes all claims and presents a final distribution plan to the court. If there are appeals, payouts can be delayed by 6 to 18 months. If the approval goes uncontested, payments typically distribute within 4 to 6 months of the deadline.
Payments from comparable children’s privacy settlements have come by check, PayPal, Venmo, or Zelle depending on what the claimant selects. If a check goes uncashed within the specified window (usually 180 days), the funds are returned to the settlement fund or redistributed to remaining claimants.