What FTC's COPPA Revisions Mean for Advertisers

Richard B. Newman is an Internet lawyer and commercial litigation attorney who counsels customers on a broad range of Internet and innovation-related legal matters, with a special emphasis on affiliate marketing. A significant portion of Richard's practice involves preventative regulatory compliance counseling, negotiating and litigating regulatory investigation and enforcement matters, and designing internal risk minimization and compliance strategies relating to applicable advertising & marketing regulations. His customers include advertisers, affiliate networks, CPA networks, publishers, and data providers. Just in case to Internet marketing & advertising law and regulatory compliance & defense, Richard's practice emphasizes electronic commerce law, business law and related litigation, online defamation, privacy and data security, and intellectual property law. Richard is currently an advisor to the California State Bar's Cyberlaw Committee on eCommerce, Data Security, and Privacy. He is currently admitted to practice law in California, New York, Nevada, the District of Columbia, and earlier the United States District Court for the Districts of Northern and Southern California, the Southern District of New York and the District of Nevada. Richard is as well a member of the Performance Marketing Association and the Executive Council of Performance Marketing.

The proposed rule

In the proposed rule, the FTC attempts to streamline the process by which operators are required to provide parents with notice of their privacy practices and the FTC tries to make the process easier for both operators and parents to understand. This change comports with the FTC's recent efforts to encourage businesses to provide consumers with more easily understandable notice and choice about information practices.