Archives: Children’s Privacy

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California’s Landmark Age-Appropriate Design Code Act: What You Need to Know

Photo of Jeewon SerratoPhoto of Jennifer MitchellPhoto of Justin T. YedorPhoto of Christine MastromonacoBy Jeewon Serrato, Jennifer Mitchell, Justin T. Yedor and Christine Mastromonaco on Posted in CCPA, Children’s Privacy
On Aug. 29, California’s Senate unanimously passed Assembly Bill 2273, known as the Age-Appropriate Design Code Act (the CA AADC or the Bill). The Bill, which is anticipated to be signed into law by Gov. Gavin Newsom, is aimed at promoting online safety and privacy for children under 18. The Bill was inspired by the … Continue Reading

Focus on Children’s Privacy Intensifies as Daily Life Moves Online

Photo of Carolina AlonsoPhoto of Melinda L. McLellanBy Carolina Alonso and Melinda L. McLellan on Posted in Children’s Privacy
With physical schools closed indefinitely, classrooms have moved online, either introducing or significantly expanding children’s use of virtual education technology and highlighting certain privacy concerns. Responding to this evolving environment, on April 9 the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) issued COPPA Guidance for Ed Tech Companies and Schools during the Coronavirus to address some common compliance … Continue Reading

Hoping for a New Year’s Resolution: Clarity on the Sale of Personal Information of California Minors

Photo of Carolina AlonsoPhoto of BakerHostetlerBy Carolina Alonso, Alan L. Friel and BakerHostetler on Posted in Children’s Privacy
Those who keep an eye on privacy laws may be familiar with how monumental the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) was when it first became effective in 1998. COPPA requires online services that directly target children under the age of 13, or reasonably know that children visit the online service, to obtain verifiable parental … Continue Reading

California Sets Forth Further Legislation Imposing New Obligations on Companies

By Alan L. Friel and Niloufar Massachi on Posted in CCPA, Children’s Privacy, Consumer Data, GDPR
Over the past few weeks, California Republican lawmakers have introduced a new package of legislation called “Your Data, Your Way,” which would expand and strengthen consumer privacy rights beyond what is required by the new California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA). The “Your Data, Your Way” package is comprised of bills that would impose new obligations … Continue Reading

States Propose to Expand Child Privacy and Ad Laws

By Alan L. Friel on Posted in Children’s Privacy
It is the 25th anniversary of the federal Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA), which has served us well, but states are looking to expand privacy protection for minors. Several years ago California expanded its Online Privacy Protection Act to give minors the right to remove content they have posted on social media and certain other … Continue Reading

New Mexico Attorney General Is Turning Up the Heat on Enforcement of Data Privacy Laws

Photo of Sara GoldsteinBy Sara Goldstein and Aaron Lancaster on Posted in Children’s Privacy, State Legislation
With the announcement last week of its new lawsuit against several tech companies for violating Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (“COPPA”), the FTC Act, and New Mexico’s Unfair Practices Act (“UPA”), the State of New Mexico Office of the Attorney General appears to be the latest in an expanding list of state attorneys general who … Continue Reading

The Video Privacy Protection Act: Watching the Courts Through Crossed Eyes

Photo of Carolina AlonsoBy Carolina Alonso, Alan L. Friel and Niloufar Massachi on Posted in Advertising, Behavioral Advertising, Children’s Privacy, Geolocation, Information Governance, Information Security, Marketing, Online Privacy, Privacy Class Actions
The Video Privacy Protection Act (VPPA), passed by Congress in 1988, is intended to prevent a “video tape service provider” from “knowingly” disclosing an individual’s “personally identifiable information” (PII) to third parties where that individual “requested or obtained … video materials,” such as “prerecorded video cassette tapes or similar audio visual materials.” At the time … Continue Reading

Toying With Children’s Data: Lessons From the FTC’s First Connected Toys Settlement Action

Photo of Carolina AlonsoBy Alan L. Friel and Carolina Alonso on Posted in Advertising, Children’s Privacy
Every year, especially around the holidays, more and more products that connect to the internet hit the market. For adults, connected home devices that act like personal domestic assistants have become increasingly popular. Children have been adding connected toys, some of which have the intelligence and programming to become a child’s best friend, to their … Continue Reading

From the Mouths of Babes: FTC Issues COPPA Enforcement Policy Regarding Voice Recordings

Photo of Carolina AlonsoPhoto of Melinda L. McLellanBy Carolina Alonso, Alan L. Friel and Melinda L. McLellan on Posted in Children’s Privacy, Enforcement, Internet of Things, Online Privacy
On October 23, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) released new guidance on how the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) Rule may apply to audio recordings of children’s voices collected by websites and online services. Reflecting the FTC’s recent focus on privacy and security concerns related to the Internet of Things (IoT), the nonbinding Enforcement … Continue Reading

Mobile Ad Co Settles with FTC Over Allegations of Deceptive Geolocation Tracking And Children’s Privacy Violations for $4 Million

By Alan L. Friel and Suchismita Pahi on Posted in Children’s Privacy
On June 22, 2016, mobile advertising company InMobi Private Ltd. settled Federal Trade Commission (“FTC” or “Commission”) claims of violations of Section 5 of the FTC Act, and the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act and Rule (COPPA), for $4 million.  The violations of COPPA supported the monetary penalty since, unlike Section 5, COPPA provides for … Continue Reading

Mobile Apps That Appeal to Children Face Increased Regulatory Scrutiny

By Alan L. Friel and Daniel Goldberg on Posted in Children’s Privacy, Cybersecurity
In September 2015, the Online Interest-based Advertising Accountability Program (Accountability Program) of the Advertising Self-regulatory Council (ASRC) began enforcing the Digital Advertising Alliance (DAA) Guidelines for Mobile Advertising (Mobile Guidance) and now the inevitable has happened: the Accountability Program has issued three compliance decisions with mobile app publishers whose apps allegedly failed to comply with … Continue Reading

FTC Prosecutes Serving of Behavior Ads on Kids’ Apps

By Alan L. Friel on Posted in Children’s Privacy
The Federal Trade Commission reminded publishers and advertisers recently that the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) prohibits data collection, absent verified parental consent, for behavioral (interest-based) advertising on websites or mobile apps directed at children under 13. App publisher TapBlaze paid $60,000 and entered into a 20-year consent (available here) to settle charges. The revised … Continue Reading

LabMD and Wyndham Decisions Curtail FTC’s Data Privacy and Security Reach

Photo of Gerald J. FergusonBy Alan L. Friel and Gerald J. Ferguson on Posted in Children’s Privacy, HIPAA/HITECH, Online Privacy
Both the administrative law judge’s decision in LabMD and the Third Circuit’s recent decision in Wyndham, which we previously blogged about, put the FTC on notice that it cannot assume that in the wake of a security breach, allegedly inadequate data security will necessarily constitute an unfair practice under Section 5 of the FTC Act. Further, … Continue Reading

YouTube Offers Owners Way to Age-Restrict Content

By Alan L. Friel on Posted in Children’s Privacy
Earlier this year Google launched an app called YouTube Kids, which it describes as offering “popular children’s programming, plus kid-friendly content from filmmakers, teachers, and creators all around the world.” See About YouTube Kids. In addition to limiting data collection and interest-based advertising to comply with the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act, YouTube explains that it makes … Continue Reading

FTC $19 Million Settlement with Google: Unauthorized In-App Charges Are Not Child’s Play

By Jenna N. Felz on Posted in Children’s Privacy, Mobile Privacy
The FTC recently approved a final Order resolving allegations that Google unfairly billed customers millions of dollars for unauthorized charges made by children using mobile apps downloaded from the Google Play app store. Under the settlement, first announced in September, Google will provide full refunds to consumers charged for purchases of items within mobile apps … Continue Reading

Yikes, Yelp! Targeted In FTC’s Stepped Up Enforcement of Children’s Privacy – General Audience Services Take Heed

By Alan L. Friel on Posted in Children’s Privacy
Signaling a predicted renewal of enforcement of the federal children’s privacy law following broad expansion last year of who and what is covered by the rules, the FTC has filed and settled two recent law suits against mobile app publishers, resulting $750,000 in civil penalties. Most noteworthy is that only one of the two is … Continue Reading

California’s New “Eraser Button” Law Allows Regretful Teens to Remove Embarrassing Internet Postings

Photo of BakerHostetlerBy BakerHostetler on Posted in Children’s Privacy, Online Privacy
Authored by: Charles K. Shih California became the first state to sign into law a bill that requires websites and apps to provide an “eraser button” to its users under the age of 18.  The law, S.B. 568 signed by California Governor Jerry Brown, has two main elements.  First, it requires Internet companies to provide … Continue Reading

New COPPA Requirements for Mobile Apps and Websites Now in Effect

Photo of BakerHostetlerBy BakerHostetler on Posted in Children’s Privacy
Authored by: Benjamin Pergament On June 3, 2013, BakerHostetler’s IP Intelligence: Insight on Intellectual Property blog wrote about the new COPPA requirements coming into effect starting July 1, including a variety of requirements intended to keep up with advances in technology and how children interact with mobile apps and websites. These have now come into … Continue Reading

Legal concepts every social media marketer should know: Part II — Rules of the road for online advertising

Photo of Fernando A. Bohorquez, Jr.By Fernando A. Bohorquez, Jr. on Posted in Children’s Privacy, Marketing, Online Privacy
Editor’s Note: This blog post was originally published on August 26, 2013, courtesy of iMedia Connection’s Blog. It is repurposed with permission. This post is co-authored by Alan M. Pate. As long as we have sold stuff, we’ve used images or stories to help sell them. As Calvin Coolidge of all people once said in … Continue Reading

Legal concepts every social media marketer should know: Part I — Consumer privacy

Photo of Fernando A. Bohorquez, Jr.By Fernando A. Bohorquez, Jr. on Posted in Children’s Privacy, Marketing, Mobile Privacy, Online Privacy, Social Media
Editor’s Note: This blog post was originally published on August 12, 2013, courtesy of iMedia Connection’s Blog. It is repurposed with permission. This post is co-authored by Alan M. Pate. There are three things a social media website operator or digital marketer probably hates to hear most before  launching an online ad campaign: 1. Can you make … Continue Reading

Mobile Apps and Websites Face New COPPA Requirements Starting July 1

Photo of Craig A. HoffmanBy Craig A. Hoffman on Posted in Children’s Privacy, Online Privacy
Authored by Benjamin D. Pergament In one month, on July 1, 2013, the Federal Trade Commission’s most recent amendments to its Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act Rule (“COPPA Rule”) will go into effect. These changes include a variety of requirements intended to keep up with advances in technology and how children interact with mobile apps … Continue Reading

FTC Announces New COPPA Enforcement Action & Mobile Privacy Staff Report

Photo of BakerHostetlerBy BakerHostetler on Posted in Children’s Privacy, Mobile Privacy
At a press conference this morning, outgoing FTC Chairman Jon Leibowitz announced an $800,000 settlement of its recent enforcement action against Path, the operator of a social networking app. The Path mobile app allowed users, including children, to create and share journals across their social network. The FTC had alleged violations of the Children’s Online … Continue Reading

FTC Amends Its COPPA Rule to Protect Children Online After Technology Advances In Gathering Their Personal Information

Photo of Barry CutlerBy Barry Cutler on Posted in Children’s Privacy, Online Privacy
Technology advances often help consumers do things quicker or easier.  For regulators and law enforcers, such advances often present challenges in keeping laws and regulations up to date. The latest example is amendments announced by the Federal Trade Commission (“FTC”) on December 19, 2012, to update its Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (“COPPA”) Rule, which … Continue Reading
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