Public Comments at FTC Focus on Expanding COPPA Regs
Members of the public sent the FTC more than 45 written comments for a review of the regulations implementing the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA), the commission said Tuesday, a day after the end of the comment period. Expanding the regs to cover technologies such as cellphones emerged as a major issue.
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Current technology undermines the regs, the Electronic Privacy Information Center told the commission. They don’t account for social networking sites or location tracking of mobile devices, the center said. They should be strengthened, especially after social networking sites and companies marketing their devices engaged in “troubling” information-collection activities, it said. COPPA regs should also be changed to encourage state laws protecting children’s privacy instead of stifling it, said EPIC. States should be able to enact stronger laws and develop innovative approaches to online privacy, it said.
EPIC said COPPA regs should set minimum standards for operator privacy notices. The current rule doesn’t require operators to explain their information practices in easily-understood language, leaving it open to interpretation, EPIC said. A statutory standard would make it easier for parents to understand and compare notices. Another suggestion was more-rigorous enforcement of COPPA rules. Operators collect more personal information than necessary, it said, citing an instance where Echometrix collected data on children for marketing purposes as it sold “parental control” software. EPIC also suggested broadening the definitions in COPPA regs to include mobile devices such as smartphones as well as locational information.
But the regs already applies to the mobile Internet, the NetChoice Coalition said in its comments. Location information isn’t specific to an individual and doesn’t fall under the law, it added. The group also opposed permitting states to pass stricter standards. A change could mean an “unworkable patchwork of inconsistent state laws” that hurts online commerce, it said. NetChoice also opposed expanding COPPA regs to cover teens 13 and over, a change that could create new liability for thousands of websites. It also could force age verification and parental consent “on a massive scale.” It asked the FTC to preserve the standard that website operators are subject to consequences only if they have actual knowledge they're collecting information from a child, rather than if they should have known. “COPPA compliance should not be a matter of shoulda, woulda, coulda,” it wrote.
Other industry groups opposed expanding COPPA regs to cover emerging services. Rules should be limited to websites and online services that collect information from children, not expanded to specific devices like cellphones, said CTIA. The National Cable & Telecommunications Association agreed. Educational shows such as the Disney Channel enrich children’s online experiences, it said. Significant changes to the regs could upset the status quo by hurting the quality of programming or barring children’s access to emerging technologies and platforms, it said.
Several privacy groups also opposed expanding COPPA regs to cover teens and operators that should have known children used their sites. General-interest websites would have to verify ages and personal information of all users, the Center for Democracy & Technology, the Progress & Freedom Foundation and the Electronic Frontier Foundation said in joint comments. COPPA rules already cover emerging technologies such as mobile communications, it added.