Parents have been given more control over data collected about their children online Wednesday when the Federal Trade Commission broadened several privacy rules regarding children’s mobile apps and web sites. The rules were updated to keep up with the growing use of mobile phones and tablets by children.
The new rules also reflect the technological innovations, such as voice recognition technology; behavior based online advertising; ads made to individual user; and global positioning systems. Regulators didn’t specify the changes made to the original rule, which is based on the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act of 1998.
Coppa required web site operators to notify parents or get their permission before collecting or sharing personal information of users under the age of 13. These include first and last names, phone numbers, email addresses, and home addresses.
It was Coppa’s goal to give parents control over parties who want to collect information about their children so that parents could prevent unwanted contact by strangers. The new rule expands the types of companies required to get parental permission before collecting personal details from children. It also expanded on the types of information that will require parental consent to collect.
The FTC’s expanded privacy protection for children is just the first step in a larger effort by regulators and lawmakers to give consumers some rights to control data collected from them. There will be more rule changes in the next couple of months to deal with consumer privacy in this age of mobile internet.
Analysts said that the new rule was a victory for web site operators, app developers, and advertising networks because regulators watered down some of the initial proposals that internet companies opposed to.
