The US
Federal Trade Commission
(
FTC
) has proposed amendments to the
Children's Online Privacy Protection Act
(
COPPA
). The commission has suggested extensive alterations to reinforce the federal rule to protect children’s privacy online.
The proposed changes to the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act of 1998 will limit how digital services like social media apps, video game platforms, toy retailers, and digital advertising networks use and monetize children's data.
The proposed changes aim to prevent companies from shifting their responsibilities onto parents regarding managing their children's data.
In 2019, the FTC reviewed the children's privacy rule, receiving 175,000+ comments, and an over 150-page proposal resulted.
Under the new rules, online services will no longer be able to use personal data to notify young children, and certain services will constantly need to turn off targeted advertising by default for children under 13.
The companies will have to justify keeping persistent identifiers and cannot use them in push notifications to encourage app returns.
Additionally, the amendments proposed to limit the amount of time the collected information can be kept. They would also limit the collection of student data by educational technology providers and learning apps. Schools would be able to give consent to the collection of children's personal information only for educational purposes, not commercial purposes.
“Kids must be able to play and learn online without being endlessly tracked by companies looking to hoard and monetize their personal data,” stated FTC Chair
Lina Khan
in the official announcement. “By requiring firms to better safeguard kids’ data, our proposal places affirmative obligations on service providers and prohibits them from outsourcing their responsibilities to parents.”
English (US) ·