Cecilia Kang of the Washington Post broke the story the other day, but now it’s up on the FTC’s site: The operator of fan websites for music stars Justin Bieber, Rihanna, Demi Lovato, and Selena Gomez has agreed to settle Federal Trade Commission charges that it violated the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) by…
Category: Youth & Schools
Bieber, Rihanna fan sites agree to $1 million FTC settlement for collecting information about children
Cecilia Kang reports: The operator of fan sites for musicians Justin Bieber, Rihanna, and Demi Lovato have agreed to pay a $1 million fine for illegally collecting information about underage users, a violation of child online privacy laws. The Federal Trade Commission said the proposed settlement with New York-based Artist Arena still must be approved by a judge. An…
Palm Scanners in MD Schools Raise Privacy Concerns
Associated Press reports that Carroll County (Maryland) students are now having their palms scanned to pay for their lunches. What caught my eye in their report was that about 20% of parents have reportedly declined to participate in the program because of privacy concerns. That strikes me as a somewhat higher percentage of refusal than…
Why Facebook’s Argument Against Privacy For Minors Is Doomed
Dave Copeland argues that Facebook’s First Amendment objections to strengthening COPPA are “weak, self-serving, and bound to fail.” Facebook had submitted a letter arguing that because the Commission’s proposal would “restrict the ability of users who are 13 years old or older to ‘Like,’ comment on, or recommend the websites or services on which those plugins are integrated,…