Biometric Update: FTC can do better on age assurance, say privacy rights’ groups

A group of privacy organizations is lobbying for “stronger, privacy-protective age assurance standards” in the U.S. and calling for the Federal Trade Commission to revise its enforcement policy statement on age verification under the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA).

A release from the Center for Digital Democracy (CDD), the Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC), and Fairplay says the groups have sent a letter to the FTC arguing that its statement “sets a weak federal floor for age verification data practices.”

Specifically, it is concerned that the FTC “sidesteps COPPA’s core protection of requiring parental consent for data collection by allowing operators of mixed audience or general audience websites or online services to collect personal information from every user, including children, without parental consent in order to determine which users are children.”

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