On May 22 the Federal Trade Commission (“FTC”) announced a $6 million settlement with Edmodo, an ed tech provider, for violations of the COPPA Rule and Section 5 of the FTC Act. The FTC described this settlement as the first FTC order that will prohibit an ed tech provider from requiring students to provide more personal data than necessary to participate in online activities. The settlement is consistent with the FTC’s policy statement on ed tech issued last May (see our summary of the policy statement here).
State, Federal, and Global Developments in Children’s Privacy, Q1 2023
This year has been off to a busy start with respect to children’s and minors’ privacy legislation efforts. We wanted to take a moment to recap the latest developments across the board.
The most notable trend of the year thus far has been the widespread introduction of Age Appropriate Design Codes. Ten states have thus
FTC Unanimously Adopts Policy Statement on Education Technology and COPPA
On May 19, the Federal Trade Commission (“FTC”) adopted, on a unanimous basis, a policy statement reminding educational technology vendors (“ed tech vendors”) of their duty to comply with the substantive privacy protections of the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (“COPPA”) and the Commission-issued COPPA Rule. The policy statement reiterates the requirements of the Rule and previous informal guidance from Commission staff, and makes clear that ed tech vendors may not submit children to commercial surveillance and data monetization practices when using technology in the classroom.
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2021 Trends in Privacy Regulatory Enforcement and Litigation
2021 was another busy year for data privacy regulatory enforcement and litigation. With some distance to reflect on last year, we have prepared this post identifying and describing important trends from 2021 that can help provide insight into what to expect in the data privacy landscape in 2022.
Data Privacy Regulatory Enforcement Trends
Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and state enforcement action in 2021 centered on several key areas, including protecting children.
An FTC enforcement action last year alleged that the maker of an online coloring book application violated the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) by collecting personal information about children who used the app without notifying their parents and obtaining their consent. The allegations note that the app included a “Kids” category that was targeted to children. The FTC further claimed that the app’s social media features collected personal information from users and that some parents, lacking knowledge of these features, may have inadvertently permitted their young children to use the app.
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