COPPA Rule

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has voted unanimously to retain the July 1, 2013 effective date for its revisions to the rule implementing the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA).  As we previously wrote, the FTC adopted significant revisions to the COPPA rule in December 2012 and established a July…

Continue Reading FTC Votes To Retain July 1 Compliance Date for Revised COPPA Rule

Last week, the California Senate unanimously passed a bill that would give California minors the right to “remove content or information” that they submit to websites, online services, online applications, or mobile applications.  The term “content or information” is not defined, and could be interpreted broadly to include any text, photos, videos, audio files, or other information provided by the minor.  Under S.B. 568, if a user under the age of eighteen years-old posted content or information on a website, online service, online application, or mobile application and later decided that he would like to have the content or information deleted, the operator of the website, online service, online application, or mobile application would be required to comply with this request. 

This requirement is subject to two important exceptions; websites, online services, online applications, and mobile applications would not be required to erase or eliminate content or information upon request (1) when other state or federal law requires that the site or service maintain the content or information, or (2) when the content or information is submitted by a third party other than the minor, or a third party republishes or resubmits content originally posted by the minor. Continue Reading California Senate Unanimously Passes Online Privacy Bill That Would Give Minors an “Eraser Button”

Yesterday, two Federal Trade Commission (“FTC”) attorneys addressed several key issues raised by the Commissions’ revised final rule implementing the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (“COPPA”).  Speaking at a webinar sponsored by the International Association of Privacy Professionals, Mamie Kresses and Phyllis Marcus, both senior attorneys at the FTC who focus on COPPA issues, discussed when a third-party service obtains “actual knowledge” that it is integrated on a website or service directed to children, whether the final rule’s “primary audience” distinction in the definition of child-directed sites expands the scope of COPPA-covered entities, and how certain COPPA provisions apply to companies that collect persistent identifiers only for support for internal operations.  Ms. Kresses and Ms. Marcus also emphasized that, under the revised final rule, “more companies will have to have the COPPA moment,” where they reassess their online offerings to determine whether they are child-directed and therefore subject to COPPA.  In order to address the many issues raised by the revised final rule, industry can expect further guidance from the FTC leading up to the July 1, 2013 effective date, including updates to the COPPA Frequently Asked Questions on the FTC’s website.

Actual Knowledge for Third Party Services

Under the revised final rule, third party services, such as plug-ins and ad networks, are subject to COPPA if they have actual knowledge that they are collecting information on a website or service directed to children.  In order to address uncertainty about when a third party will be deemed to have obtained “actual knowledge,” the FTC’s Statement of Basis and Purpose for the revised COPPA rule suggests that actual knowledge may be obtained when (1) a child directed content provider directly communicates the child-directed nature of its content to the third party service, or (2) a representative of the online service recognizes the child-directed nature of the content.Continue Reading FTC Attorneys Offer Guidance On New COPPA Rule

The U.S. took the lead in legislating privacy rights for children and parents in the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act more than a decade ago.  Now the European Union has proposed including privacy protections for children in the Data Protection Regulation under discussion, and Latin American countries have included regulation…
Continue Reading The International Privacy Rights of the Child: A Computers, Freedom & Privacy Mini-Conference