Barton

Reps. Edward J. Markey (D-MA), Joe Barton (R-TX), and other Members of Congress recently expressed disappointment that responses to letters that they had sent to nine data brokerage firms offered “only a glimpse of the practices of an industry that has operated in the shadows for years.”  In July, Reps.

Continue Reading Lawmakers Release Results of Inquiry Into Data Brokerage Firms

Yesterday, Congressmen Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.) and Joe Barton (R-Texas), Co-Chairmen of the Bi-Partisan Privacy Caucus, released letters they received from three college testing and preparatory organizations — ACT, Inc. (response), College Board (owner of the SAT) (response part 1, part 2), and the National Research Center for College and…

Continue Reading College Testing and Prep Companies Respond to Inquiries Regarding Data Policies

Representatives Edward Markey and Joe Barton recently introduced the “Do Not Track Kids Act of 2011,” which would expand and modernize the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) and also would introduce new privacy protections for all minors under 18.  

COPPA currently prohibits operators of websites and online services from knowingly collecting, using, or disclosing personal information from children under 13 years of age without parental consent.  The Do Not Track Kids Act would, among other changes, expand COPPA to cover online and mobile applications and to protect unique device identifiers such as IP addresses.

Separately, the bill would establish new privacy rules to protect minors under 18.  If enacted, the bill would prohibit the use of personal information for targeted marketing to minors, require express consent from parents or teens prior to the collection of geolocation information, require operators to provide a means to delete personal information shared publicly by minors, and require covered entities to implement a “Digital Marketing Bill of Rights for Teens” that would be influenced by the Federal Trade Commission.

After the jump is a summary of the bill’s key provisions.Continue Reading Markey and Barton Introduce “Do Not Track Kids Act of 2011”

Although concerns about locational privacy are hardly new, recent developments suggest that policymakers and government officials are taking a close look at the privacy issues raised when geolocation data is collected via smartphones.

  • The Wall Street Journal reports that a federal grand jury in New Jersey is probing the data collection

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Continue Reading Government Scrutiny of Locational Privacy Increases