The U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is proposing new rules under
the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act
(COPPA). The current COPPA Rules date to 1999, long before
the proliferation of advertising networks and plug-ins.
Given the fluid nature of the Canada-U.S. border when it comes
to e-commerce activities, Canadian companies should pay attention
to the proposed rule changes. The FTC is seeking comments
until September 10, 2012.
Key amendments involve changes to the definition of
"personal information", "website or online service
directed to children" and "operator".
Personal Information
The definition of "personal information" would
expressly include persistent identifiers. These are identifiers
that can be used to recognize a user over different websites or
online services, provided that it is used for functions other than
the internal operations of the website or online services. This
could include Cookies, Internet Protocol addresses, Media
