The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) typically reviews its rules every 10 years, but due to the rapid changes in technology, including the expanding use of education technology, the committee has decided to ask for comments on the amendments it made to the Children's Online Privacy Protection act (COPPA) in 2013. COPPA first went into effect in 2000 and its purpose is to protect children’s privacy by giving parents tools to control what information is collected from their children online. In addition to standard questions about the effectiveness of the COPPA Rule and whether it should be retained or modified, the FTC is seeking comment on all major provisions of the COPPA Rule, including its definitions, notice and parental consent requirements, exceptions to verifiable parental consent, and safe harbor provision.  The FTC will hold a public workshop on October 7, 2019 to examine the COPPA Rule. Some of the specific questions on which the FTC is seeking comment...

On Monday (6/3) at Apple’s 2019 Worldwide Developers Conference, the company announced its new kid-focused privacy changes . Apple now requires developers to place advertisements, links that lead out of the apps and purchasing opportunities behind parental gates, which ideally can only be accessed by parents. Additionally, once a mobile app is added in the App Store’s Kids Category, even if the developer later chooses to remove the app from the category, the app will still be required to follow the Kids Category's privacy requirements. This will ensure that all the apps that are labeled as being for-children when downloaded will remain so after all subsequent updates. Developers are also barred from using third-party advertising or analytics in apps that appear in the Kids Category (presumably to reduce tracking). Last but not least, Apple urged developers to be mindful of privacy laws in the various jurisdictions where they collect data from kids. These changes are defini...

Following recent complaints submitted to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) by industry groups, including the Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood (CCFC) and the Center for Digital Democracy (CCD), regarding Amazon’s alleged Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) violations, Amazon has been making some changes. Amazon is creating new commands to easily allow users to delete their information.  Commands such as “Alexa, delete everything I said today” and “Alexa, delete what I just said.” Until now, the only way to delete recordings was to either go through the app and delete the recordings one-by-one, or go through the website in order to delete every recording at once. Amazon has also launched the “Alexa Privacy Hub” that focuses on helping users learn more about the privacy features of Echo devices and also provides a link to the “Alexa Privacy Settings” where the user can delete existing recordings. These changes are definitely a step in the right direction...

Facebook has agreed to settle deception charges by the Federal Trade Commission.  Facebook allegedly promised its consumers that they could keep their information on Facebook private, and then allowed it to be shared and made public.  Click HERE to read the rest of the article on the FTC's website.