COPPA Update Spurs Call for Privacy Policy Updates
Platforms targeting children and mixed audiences should update their “privacy policies and consent practices” by year's end to comply with new FTC rules under the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act, attorneys at Fenwick said Tuesday.
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The Biden FTC on Thursday announced its long-awaited COPPA update (see 2501160068). Chairman Andrew Ferguson, who officially took office this week, has vowed COPPA will have further changes. He said Wednesday that the FTC “will end the previous administration’s assault on the American way of life, and we will usher in a new Golden Age for American businesses, workers, and consumers.”
The Biden COPPA update includes new definitions for the term mixed audiences as well as services directed to children. Fenwick said the 2012 COPPA update included mixed audiences but didn’t define it. The latest rule defines it "to mean an online site or service that is directed to children but does not target children as its primary audience and does not collect personal information from any visitor, other than to estimate whether the visitor is a child.” Once a site determines a user’s age, it can collect personal information without verifiable parental consent (VPC), said Fenwick.
Platforms that obtain VPC will likely need to update direct notice disclosures due to new requirements stating companies must disclose how they intend to use a child’s personal information, said Fenwick. In addition, companies must now allow parents the right to consent to data collection without consenting to sharing data with third parties, unless that sharing is integral to offering service.