Privacy Experts Highlight FTC’s New Parental Consent Requirement
The FTC’s new requirement that companies obtain separate parental consent when collecting children’s data for nonessential business purposes is a key change compliance professionals should fully understand, attorneys said Tuesday.
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The FTC on Thursday finalized its rule updating agency regulations under the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) (see 2501160068). Finalized by a unanimous commission vote, the rule takes effect 60 days after publication in the Federal Register.
Ariel Fox Johnson, Common Sense Media senior adviser-data privacy, said it was unclear before the final rule whether separate consent was required for nonintegral activity under COPPA, but now it’s clear.
This is a “big shift,” she told a Public Interest Privacy Center webinar Tuesday. The FTC provided flexibility by declining in the final rule to define activity related to targeted ads and AI training as nonintegral. Sara Kloek, Software & Information Industry Association vice president-education policy, said this change is important for compliance professionals and requires a close reading of the final rule.
In the final rule the FTC said that companies must give parents the “option to consent to the collection and use of the child’s personal information without consenting to disclosure of his or her personal information to third parties, unless such disclosure is integral to the website or online service. An operator required to give the parent this option must obtain separate verifiable parental consent to such disclosure.”