In late May, the Federal Trade Commission sought an injunction in the Northern District of California against Edmodo, which has historically offered school districts a virtual classroom platform with tools for assignments, quizzes, and similar items. The FTC argues that Edmodo violated the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act by failing to obtain parental consent to certain disclosures of children’s personal information.
As the FTC has long expressed in guidance,… More
On October 1, 2019, China’s new regulation to protect personal data related to children – called the “Measures on Online Protection of Children’s Personal Data” – went into effect.
As we wrote in June, when a draft of the regulation was released by the Cyberspace Administration of China, the regulation contains elements similar to those found in both the United States’ Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (“COPPA”) and the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (“GDPR”).… More
In early June, the Cyberspace Administration of China released for public comment new draft regulations applicable to the collection of personal information relating to children under 14 by online service providers.
The draft regulations share many of the same structures as those utilized by the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (“COPPA”) in the United States:
On May 9, 2019, a coalition of consumer groups submitted a complaint to the Federal Trade Commission (“FTC”) regarding Amazon’s Echo Dot Kids Edition, arguing that the device runs afoul of the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (“COPPA”). The Echo Dot Kids Edition is a child-focused version of Amazon’s popular voice-activated smart speaker device that utilizes Amazon’s Alexa digital assistant.… More
The FTC’s COPPA Guidance does an admirable job explaining the basics of what a business needs to do to comply with COPPA, but is vague as to how a business must protect personal information collected from children. The COPPA Guidance requires that a company use “reasonable procedures” to protect such information from unauthorized access or use, but does not explain what “reasonable procedures” means. This is,… More
On June 21, 2017, the FTC updated its COPPA Compliance Guidance for businesses. The new guidance includes new descriptions of services and products covered by COPPA, and new methods for obtaining parental consent.
Though the guidance is new, the subjects of the guidance generally are not; for example, “internet-enabled location-based services” have long been within the ambit of COPPA because geolocation information has long been part of the definition of “personal information” of children that COPPA regulates.… More
In Case You Missed It
The FTC settled with mobile advertising company InMobi for $950,000 in civil penalties, along with the implementation of a privacy program, based on the FTC’s charges that InMobi impermissibly tracked the locations of both adult and child consumers for the purpose of geo-targeted advertising. The latter, of course, also implicated allegations of violations of the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) rule. … More
The COPPA Rule requires website and online service operators to give notice to parents and obtain verifiable parental consent before collecting children’s “personal information” online. 16 CFR §§ 312.4, 312.5. The definition of “personal information” encompasses some obvious pieces of data – name and address, for example – and some less-obvious ones, such as screen names, geolocation data, and “persistent identifiers.” A “persistent identifier” is a piece of information “that can be used to recognize a user over time and across different web sites or online services,” such as “a cookie,… More
Delaware Attorney General Matt Denn is serious about online privacy, and aims to make Delaware “the safest state in America for kids to use the internet.” This August, Delaware Governor Jack Markell signed into law four online privacy bills drafted by the Attorney General, the most substantial of which is the Delaware Online Privacy and Protection Act.
The FTC’s COPPA (the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act) Rule requires website operators to obtain “verifiable parental consent” prior to collecting, using, or disclosing personal information from children. Though the COPPA Rule enumerates several methods for obtaining consent, the FTC, sensitive to how fluid technological developments in this space can be, also allows pre-approval of new methods not listed in the Rule. 16 CFR 312.12(a).… More