FTC Amends COPPA to Fortify Kids’ Privacy
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) recently adopted final amendments to the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Rule (COPPA) that aim to “strengthen kids’ privacy protections and give parents greater control over the personal information that websites and online services may collect from children under 13.” Based on the findings of a review initiated in 2010, these amendments (i) “modify the list of ‘personal information’ that cannot be collected without parental notice and consent, clarifying that this category includes geolocation information, photographs, and videos”; (ii) “offer companies a streamlined, voluntary and transparent approval process for new ways of getting parental consent”; (iii) “close a loophole that allowed kid-directed apps and websites to permit third parties to collect personal information from children through plug-ins without parental notice and consent”; (iv) “extend coverage in some of those cases so that the third parties doing the additional collection also have to comply with COPPA”; (v) “extend the COPPA Rule to cover persistent identifiers that can recognize users over time and across different websites or online services, such as IP addresses and mobile device IDs”; (vi) “strengthen data security protections by requiring that covered website operators and online service providers take reasonable steps to release children’s personal information only to companies that are capable of keeping it secure and confidential”; and (vii) “require that covered website operators adopt reasonable procedures for data retention and deletion.”
The amended COPPA rules will also require self-regulatory “safe harbor
programs” to audit members and report the results of these audits annually.
In addition, FTC has expanded the definitions for “operators,” “websites or
online service directed to children,” “personal information,” and “collection”
of personal information, partly to cover third-party plug-ins and advertising
networks with “actual knowledge that they are collecting personal information
through a child-directed website or online service.”
“The Commission takes seriously its mandate to protect children’s online
privacy in this ever-changing technological landscape,” said FTC Chair Jon Leibowitz in a December 19, 2012, press release. “I am confident that the amendments to the COPPA Rule strike the right balance between protecting
innovation that will provide rich and engaging content for children, and
ensuring that parents are informed and involved in their children’s online
activities.”
