Over the last few years, there has been an increased focus on the collection of children’s personal information in the United States. For example, many states have begun passing laws that significantly increase regulation for businesses collecting personal information from children, see our previous discussion on California’s Age-Appropriate Design Code Act. Additionally, at the federal level, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has increased its focus on the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA), specifically in the educational context.Continue Reading Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act Update! FTC Enforcement and New Parental Consent Proposal

What career could possibly be more exciting than serving as a privacy lawyer for tech start-up companies? This is a question I asked myself a few years back, right after I finished clerking for a couple of terrific federal judges and right as I was considering starting the privacy practice I had envisioned as a law student sitting in Prof. Fred Cate’s classes at the Indiana University Maurer School of Law several years earlier. At that time, my answer was
Continue Reading How To Advise Tech Start-Ups in Practice, Not Theory

“How To Advise Tech Start-Ups in Practice, Not Theory,” an article by Taft Cincinnati attorney Matthew D. Lawless, was published in IAPP’s The Privacy Advisor on March 24.

About the IAPP
The IAPP is the largest and most comprehensive global information privacy community and resource. Founded in 2000, the IAPP is a not-for-profit organization that helps define, support and improve the privacy profession globally.
Continue Reading Lawless Published in The Privacy Advisor

The Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (“COPPA”) governs an online operator’s collection of personal information from children, i.e., those under 13 years of age.  Generally, the act requires verifiable parental consent before an online operator may collect a child’s “personal information,” a term that the rule broadly defines.  Verifiable parental consent is not easy to obtain, but it has been simplified, per the FTC’s guidance, for operators collecting online information in partnerships with schools.

Verifiable Parental Consent
The general rule
Continue Reading Simplifying Classroom Consent: the FTC’s Guidance on COPPA in Schools