CYBERLAW

Cyberlaw Meets Family Law:

The Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act of 1998 (COPPA)

Class of Nov. 11, 2002

Professor Susanna Fischer

COPPA, COPA, CIPA

• What’s the difference?

• COPPA is a very significant statute because it is the first and only federal privacy statute that is specific to the Internet.

WHAT IS COPPA’S MAIN GOAL?

• The primary goal of COPPA as well as the COPPA Rule is to place parents in control over what information is collected from their children online. The Rule was designed to be strong, yet flexible, to protect children while recognizing the dynamic nature of the Internet.

Who Must Comply With COPPA ?

• Operators of commercial websites

• 1. Directed to children 12 and under that collect/maintain personal information

• 2. That have actual knowledge that are collecting/maintaining personal information about children 12 and under

What is “Personal Information”

• Last name? First name?

• Address?

• E-mail address? Phone number?

• Social security number?

• Hobbies?

• IP address?

• Information Stored in Cookies?

WHAT DOES COPPA REQUIRE SUCH OPERATORS TO DO?

• Provide parents with NOTICE of their information practices

• Obtain PRIOR VERIFIABLE PARENTAL CONSENT for the collection, use and/or disclosure of personal information from children (with certain limited exceptions)

• Provide a parent, on request, with the MEANS TO REVIEW personal information collected from his/her child.

WHAT DOES COPPA REQUIRE SUCH OPERATORS TO DO?

• Provide a parent with the OPPORTUNITY TO PREVENT further use of personal information collected from their child (or further collection)

• Limit collection of personal information for child’s online participation in games, prize offers, or other activities to information that is REASONABLY NECESSARY for such activity.

• Establish and maintain REASONABLE PROCEDURES to protect the confidentiality, security, and integrity of the personal information collected.

PARENTAL CONSENT

• FTC tried to devise a method that would satisfy 2 goals: (1) ensure child’s parent actually agrees to let a website collect personal info from his/her child (2) do so without undue burden

• Reasonable efforts must be made to obtain verifiable parental consent, taking into consideration available technology, including: consent form to be signed by parent and returned by mail or fax, toll-free phone number for parent to call, digital certificate using public key encryption technology, e-mail accompanied by PIN, password

SLIDING SCALE

• For internal use of information, parental consent can be obtained through e-mail combined with additional step following receipt (confirmatory e-mail, letter or phone call)

• Sliding scale in force until April, 2005

DOES COPPA WORK?

• FTC Survey April 2002 of 144 sites at: http://www.ftc.gov/os/2002/04/coppasurvey.pdf

• Earlier study: Joseph Turow study on COPPA compliance in privacy policies on children’s websites for the Annenberg Public Policy Center (March, 2001)

ENFORCEMENT OF COPPA

• How is COPPA enforces, who enforces it, and what are the penalties for violating COPPA?

FTC ENFORCEMENT ACTIONS

• In April, 2001 FTC announced first civil penalty cases brought under COPPA against:

• Monarch Services and Girl’s Life (operators of www.girlslife.com

• Bigmailbox.com, Inc./Nolan Quan (operator of www.bigmailbox.com)

• Looksmart Ltd. (operator of www.insidetheweb.com)• Under settlement, 3 companies agreed to pay

$100,000 in civil penalties and delete personally identifiable information collected by children

FTC ENFORCEMENT ACTIONS

• 6 COPPA enforcement actions to date• April 2001 Ohio Art Company (operators of the Etch A

Sketch Website at: http://www.etch-a-sketch.com/) – under settlement agreed to pay $35,000 penalty and not further violate COPPA

• Feb. 2002: American Pop Corn Company “Jolly Time” web site at: http://www.jollytime.com

• (had a Kid’s Club)– under settlement agreed to pay $10,000 and not to further violate COPPA

• Oct. 2001: Lisa Frank, Inc. (makes toys, school supplies; website at: http://www.lisafrank.com) – under settlement agreed to pay $30,000 and not to further violate COPPA

IS COPPA TOO ONEROUS?

• Companies – is it to expensive to comply? For example, Surf Monkey (see www.surfmonkey.com) apparently spent between $50,000 and $100,000 to comply with COPPA

• Parents – is it too onerous to read privacy policies? For an example, see: http://www.toucansam.com/privacy/ Also, is opt-in too onerous?

DOES COPPA WRONGLY IGNORE TEENS?

• Websites’ information practices are still subject to Section 5 of the FTC Act, which prohibits unfair or deceptive trade practices.

• October 2002: FTC settles with 2 companies (National Research Center for College and University Admissions (NRCCUA) and American Student List (ASL)) that collected extensive personal information from millions of high school students claiming they would only share this with educational institutions, and then sold it to commercial marketers.

IS COPPA A GOOD LAW AS A FAMILY LAW?

• What does Anita Allen-Castellito think?

• Do you agree?

• Is COPPA a good law as privacy law? Should children be able to waive privacy rights in online personal information?

DO THE FOLLOWING SITES COMPLY WITH COPPA?

• http://www.pojo.com

• http://www.bigmailbox.com

• http://www.lunchables.com

• http://www.disney.com

• http://www.harrypotter.com