A previous blog post discussed FTC Chairwoman Slaughter’s first priority as the newly designated chairwoman – the COVID-19 pandemic. The FTC’s second priority, racial equity, can be broken down into two sub issues. First, the FTC plans to investigate biased and discriminatory algorithms that target vulnerable communities. As the FTC acknowledges, the analysis of data … Continue Reading
On January 21, 2021, President Biden designated Federal Trade Commission (the “FTC”) Commissioner Rebecca Kelly Slaughter as acting chair of the FTC. Soon thereafter in one of her first speeches in her new role, Chairwoman Slaughter announced two substantive areas of priority for the FTC – the COVID-19 pandemic and racial equity.… Continue Reading
Earlier this month, the FTC sent a letter to Wildec, LLC, the Ukraine-based maker of several mobile dating apps, alleging that the apps were collecting the personal information and location data of users under the age of 13 without first obtaining verifiable parental consent or otherwise complying with the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA). … Continue Reading
On January 1, 2016, the Delaware Online Privacy and Protection Act (“DOPPA”) will go into force, a law that provides strong online privacy protection for its residents. The new law targets three areas of compliance: (1) advertising to children; (2) conspicuous posting of a compliant privacy policy; and (3) enhancing the privacy protections of users … Continue Reading
The past few years have seen exponential growth in the use of technology in the classroom, with applications ranging from the increased availability and use of e-books to the displacement of physical classrooms through Massive Open Online Courses (also known as MOOCs). One of the fastest growing segments of the education technology market relates to … Continue Reading
On January 23, 2015, Senior Attorney Lesley Fair at the Federal Trade Commission (“FTC”) posted on the Agency’s business blog clarifying how the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (“COPPA”) applies to schools. COPPA seeks to protect the privacy of children by allowing parents to control what personal information about their children under the age of … Continue Reading
A substantial rise in schools’ use of online educational technology products has caused educators to become increasingly reliant on these products to develop their curricula, deliver materials to students in real time, and monitor students’ progress and learning habits through the collection of data by third-party cloud computing service providers. Unfortunately, with these advances come … Continue Reading
Two and a half years after initiating a review of the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Rule (the “Rule”), the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) announced on December 19, 2012 that the Rule will be amended to clarify perceived ambiguities and to strengthen the Rule’s protections for children who engage in online activities in light of significant … Continue Reading
The Federal Trade Commission recently announced its settlement with the operator of www.skidekids.com concerning allegations that the operator violated the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act Rule ("COPPA Rule") by collecting personal information about children without obtaining parental consent. For Skid-e-kids, the FTC's settlement means taking remedial measures; an injunction; and a $100,000 civil penalty. For the rest of us, the settlement is a good reminder that the FTC is staunchly committed to protecting children's privacy. So when it comes to collecting personal information from children online, it's important to do it right . . . or not at all.
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On Monday, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) announced that mobile application developer W3 Innovations, LLC (d/b/a Broken Thumbs Apps), has agreed to pay a fine of $50,000 in order to settle charges that it collected and disclosed personal information from children under the age of 13 without first notifying parents of information-collection policies or obtaining verifiable … Continue Reading
Playdom, Inc., an online game company owned by Disney, and Playdom's CEO, Howard Marks, agreed to pay $3 million to settle charges brought by the FTC that they violated COPPA by collecting, using and disclosing the personal information of children under the age of 13 without their parents' prior, verifiable consent. The $3 million settlement is the largest civil penalty ever for a COPPA violation.
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Earlier today, the FTC announced its latest COPPA enforcement action (http://www.ftc.gov/opa/2009/10/iconix.shtm). Iconix Brand Group, Inc., the operator of websites featuring its apparel brands, was fined $250,000 for collecting personal information from children without complying with COPPA’s parental consent rubric. The FTC cited the websites associated with the brands Mudd, Candie’s, Bongo and OP, which are … Continue Reading
On Wednesday, August 26, 2009, a lawsuit was filed in federal court in Maine to enjoin Maine’s new predatory marketing to minors law, which was previously discussed on our blog. If not enjoined, this problematic law is scheduled to go into effect on September 12, 2009. The complaint, filed on behalf of offline and online entities, … Continue Reading
In December 2007, Texas became the first state to file COPPA enforcement actions, by separately suing the entities behind Gamesradar.com and TheDollPalace.com in the United States District Court for the Western District of Texas. The complaints are available as an attachment to the press release on the Texas Attorney General's website. The defendants in those cases are California and New York - and not Texas - entities.
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The Federal Trade Commission has quietly changed its position on the level of parental consent required under the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act ("COPPA") for e-cards sent from a website directed to children.
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Yesterday, attorneys general from 49 states (all but California's) and the District of Columbia announced a sweeping agreement with MySpace under which the company will adopt new measures to protect children online.
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In follow-up to our earlier blog post regarding recent pressure on social networking sites from law enforcement, New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo announced yesterday that his office had entered into a settlement with Facebook. The settlement resolves the Attorney General’s investigation of Facebook’s failure to fulfill public claims it made about protecting minors, which the … Continue Reading
Kids like social networking sites, most notably MySpace and Facebook. So it is not surpising that law enforcement is scrutinizing how the sites protect children. Recent subpoenas issued to Facebook by New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo and New Jersey Attorney General Anne Milgram are illustrative. Both subpoenas sought information about Facebook’s Internet safety and security policies. The … Continue Reading
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