CDD Filings

https://www.ftc.gov/system/files/ftc_gov/pdf/R307000_RULE_MAKING_PETITION_TO_PROHIBIT_THE%20_USE_ON_CHILDREN_OF_DESIGN_FEATURES.pdf

CDD and Advocates Call on the FTC to Begin Rulemaking to Prohibit Surveillance AdvertisingJanuary 26, 2022Federal Trade CommissionOffice of the Secretary600 Pennsylvania Avenue NWWashington, DC 20580Re: Comment on Petition for Rulemaking by Accountable Tech, FTC-2021-0070  INTRODUCTIONCenter for Digital Democracy, Common Sense, Fairplay, Parent Coalition for Student Privacy and ParentsTogether strongly support the Petition for Rulemaking to Prohibit Surveillance Advertising filed by Accountable Tech1. We agree that this action is necessary to stop the exploitation of children and teens2.Surveillance advertising, also known as behavioral or targeted advertising, has become the standard business model for a wide array of online platforms with companies utilizing this practice to micro-target all consumers, including children and teens. Surveillance advertising involves the collection of vast amounts of personal data of online users, their demographics, behaviors, preferences, characteristics, and the production of inferences. To create detailed advertising profiles from this data, users are  tracked across websites and devices; they are classified, sorted, and even discriminated against via targeting and exclusion; and ultimately are left vulnerable to manipulation and exploitation.Young people are especially susceptible to the risks posed by surveillance advertising, which is why leading public health advocates like the American Academy of Pediatrics have called for a ban on surveillance advertising to children under 18 years old3. Children’s and teens’ online experiences are shaped by the affordances of surveillance marketing, which entrap them in a complex system purposefully designed to manipulate their behaviors and emotions, while leveraging their data in the process. Young people are a significant audience for the real-time ad profiling and targeting apparatus operated through programmatic platforms and technologies, which poses fundamental risks to their privacy, safety and well-being.  Surveillance advertising is harmful to young people in several ways. First, young people are already more susceptible to advertising’s negative effects and surveillance advertising allows marketers to manipulate children and teens even more effectively. Second, surveillance advertising allows advertisers to target children’s individual vulnerabilities. Third, surveillance advertising can exacerbate inequities by allowing advertisers to target (or abstain from targeting) marginalized communities. Fourth, behavioral advertising is the driving force behind a complex system of data collection and surveillance that tracks all of children’s online activity, undermining young people’s privacy and wellbeing. Finally, the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act has failed to effectively protect children under thirteen from surveillance advertising and a more expansive prohibition is needed to protect the youngest and most vulnerable users online.For these reasons, we urge the Commission to protect children and teens by prohibiting surveillance advertising.......Please read the full petition, see PDF below......____________________________________________186 Fed. Reg. 73206 (Dec. 27, 2021).2Pet’n for Rulemaking at 32-33.3Jenny Radesky, Yolanda (Linda) Reid Chassiakos, Nusheen Ameenuddin, Dipesh Navsaria, Council on Communications and Media; Digital Advertising to Children. Pediatrics July 2020; 146 (1): e20201681. 10.1542/peds.2020-1681.childrens_coalition_survadv_1-26-22.pdf

Washington, December 11, 2019 In comments filed today in response to the Federal Trade Commission’s review of COPPA, the Center for Digital Democracy, the Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood, the American Academy of Pediatrics, and a total of 19 advocacy groups faulted the FTC for failing to engage in sufficient enforcement and oversight of the children’s privacy law. The groups suggested how COPPA can better protect children’s privacy, and urged the Commission not to weaken the law to satisfy industry’s thirst for more data about kids. The advocates also urged the FTC first to investigate the children’s “kid tech” market before it proposes any changes in how to implement its rules. The following can be attributed to Jeff Chester, Executive Director, Center for Digital Democracy: “Children are at greater risk today of losing their digital privacy because the FTC has failed to enforce COPPA. For years, the Commission has allowed Google and many others to ignore the landmark bipartisan law designed to protect children under 13. It’s time for the FTC to stand up to the big data companies and put the interests of young people and families first.” The following can be attributed to Josh Golin, Executive Director, Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood: “This is a critical moment for the future of children’s online privacy. The ink is barely dry on the FTC’s first major COPPA enforcement, and already industry is mobilizing to weaken the rules. The FTC should not make any changes to COPPA until it uses its authority to learn exactly how Big Tech is collecting and monetizing our children’s data.” The following can be attributed to Kyle Yasuda, MD, FAAP, President, American Academy of Pediatrics: “Keeping children safe and healthy where they learn and grow is core to what pediatricians do every day, and today more than ever before that extends to the digital spaces that children inhabit. The Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act is a foundational law that helps hold companies accountable to basic standards of safety when it comes to children’s digital privacy, but it’s only as effective as its enforcement by the Federal Trade Commission. Before any major changes are made to COPPA, we must ensure that the FTC is doing its part to keep children safe wherever they engage online.” The following can be attributed to Laura Moy, Associate Professor of Law, Director of the Communications and Technology Law Clinic, Institute for Public Representation at Georgetown University Law Center: “A recent survey showed that the majority of Americans feel that ‘the threat to personal privacy online is a crisis.’ We are at a critical point in our nation’s history right now—when we are deciding whether or not to allow companies to track, profile, and target us to an extent that compromises our ability to be and make decisions for ourselves. At the forefront of that discussion are children. We must protect the next generation from inappropriate tracking so that they can grow up with privacy and dignity. To make good on that, the FTC must thoroughly investigate how companies are collecting and using children’s data, and must enforce and strengthen COPPA.”

EMBARGOED UNTIL DECEMBER 5, 2019 AT 12:01 AM Contact: Jeffrey Chester, CDD, jeff@democraticmedia.org (link sends e-mail), (202) 494-7100 Josh Golin, CCFC, josh@commercialfreechildhood.org (link sends e-mail); 617-896-9369 Leading child advocacy, health, and privacy groups call on FTC to Investigate Children’s Digital Media Marketplace Before Proposing any Changes to Privacy Protections for Children Threats to young people from digital marketing and data collection must be analyzed to ensure meaningful safeguards under the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA). WASHINGTON, DC and BOSTON, MA – December 5, 2019 – A coalition of 31 advocacy groups is urging the Federal Trade Commission to use its subpoena authority to obtain information from leading digital media companies that target children online. In comments filed today by the Institute for Public Representation at Georgetown and organized by Center for Digital Democracy (CDD) and the Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood (CCFC), the coalition explained the opaque data and digital marketing practices targeting kids. The comments are filed with the FTC as part of its early review of the rules protecting children under the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA). The advocates’ call was supported by Sesame Workshop, the leading producer of children’s educational programming, in a separate filing. To better assess the impacts on children from today’s digital data-driven advertising system, and features such as cross-device tracking, artificial intelligence, machine learning, virtual reality, and real-time measurement—the advocates urge the commission to gather and analyze data from leading companies that target children. Any proposed changes to COPPA must be based on empirical data, which is consistent with calls by Commissioners Wilson, Phillips, and Simons that rulemaking must be evidence-based. In their comments, the organizations ask the FTC to use its authority under rule 6(b) to: - Examine today’s methods of advertising to children and their impact, including their discriminatory effects - Examine practices concerning data collection and retention - Illuminate children’s presence on “general audience” platforms and those platforms’ awareness of children’s presence - Identify how the data of children is being used by contemporary data platforms, including “marketing clouds,” “identity management” systems, in-house data management platforms, and data brokers - Illuminate the efficacy—or lack thereof—of safe harbors Groups that have signed the comments are Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood; Center for Digital Democracy; American Academy of Pediatrics; Badass Teachers Association; Berkeley Media Studies Group; Center for Science in the Public Interest; Children and Screens; Color of Change; Common Sense Media; Consumer Action; Consumer Federation of America; Consumer Federation of California; Consumer Reports; Consumer Watchdog; Corporate Accountability; Defending the Early Years; Electronic Frontier Foundation; Electronic Privacy Information Center; Obligation, Inc.; Parent Coalition for Student Privacy; Parents Across America; Parents Television Council; P.E.A.C.E. (Peace Educators Allied For Children Everywhere) (link is external); Privacy Rights Clearinghouse; Public Citizen; Public Knowledge; The Story of Stuff; TRUCE (Teachers Resisting Unhealthy Childhood Entertainment); UnidosUS; United Church of Christ; and U.S. Public Interest Research Group (U.S. PIRG). …. The following can be attributed to Kyle Yasuda, MD, FAAP, President, American Academy of Pediatrics: “As children become more digitally connected, it becomes even more important for parents, pediatricians and others who care for young children to understand how digital media impacts their health and development. Since digital technology evolves rapidly, so must our understanding of how data companies are engaging with children’s information online. As we pursue the promise of digital media for children’s development, we must design robust protections to keep them safe based on an up-to-date understanding of the digital spaces they navigate.” The following can be attributed to Josh Golin, Executive Director of Campaign for Commercial-Free Childhood: As kids are spending more time than ever on digital devices, we need the full power of the law to protect them from predatory data collection -- but we can't protect children from Big Tech business models if we don't know how those models truly work. The FTC must use its full authority to investigate opaque data and marketing practices before making any changes to COPPA. We need-to-know what Big Tech knows about our kids." The following can be attributed to Katharina Kopp, Director of Policy, Center for Digital Democracy (CDD): “Children are being subjected to a purposefully opaque ‘Big Data’ digital marketing system that continually gathers their information when they are online. The FTC must use its authority to understand how new and evolving advertising practices targeting kids really work, and whether these data practices are having a discriminatory, or other harmful impact, on their lives.” The following can be attributed to James P. Steyer, CEO and Founder of Common Sense: "Kids and families have to be the priority in any changes to COPPA and in order to do that, we must fully understand what the industry is and isn’t doing when it comes to tracking and targeting kids. Tech companies are never going to be transparent about their business practices which is why it is critical that the FTC use its authority to look behind the curtain and shed light on what they are doing when it comes to kids so that if any new rules are needed, they can be smart and well-informed." The following can be attributed to Katie McInnis, Policy Counsel, Consumer Reports: "We’re glad the FTC is asking for comments on the implementation of COPPA through the 2013 COPPA rule. But the Commission should have the fullest possible picture of how children's personal information is being collected and used before it considers any changes. It’s well-documented that compliance with COPPA is uneven among apps, connected toys, and online services. The FTC must fully understand how kids’ personal information is treated before the 2013 rule can be modified, in order to ensure that children and their data are protected.” The following can be attributed to Marc Rotenberg, President, Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC): “The FTC should complete its homework before it proposes changes to the regulations that safeguard children’s privacy. Without a clear understanding of current industry practices, the agency’s proposal will be ill-informed and counterproductive." The following can be attributed to Lindsey Barrett, Staff Attorney and Teaching Fellow, Institute for Public Representation, Georgetown Law: The FTC should conduct 6(b) studies to shed light on the complex and evolving profiling practices that violate children’s privacy. Children are being monitored, quantified, and analyzed more than ever before, and the Commission cannot make informed decisions about the rules that protect them online based on limited or skewed information about the online ecosystem. The following can be attributed to Robert Weissman, President, Public Citizen: “The online corporate predators are miles ahead of the FTC, employing surveillance and targeting tactics against children that flout the protections enshrined in COPPA. The first thing the FTC should do is invoke its investigative powers to get a firm grasp on how Big Tech is systematically invading children’s privacy.” The following can be attributed to Cheryl A. Leanza, Policy Advisor, UCC OC Inc.: “In the modern era, our data are our lives and our children’s lives are monitored and tracked in more detail than any previous generation to unknown effect. Parents seek to pass on their own values and priorities to their children, but feel subverted at every turn by unknown algorithms and marketing efforts directed to their children. At a minimum, the FTC must collect basic facts and trends about children and their data privacy.” The following can be attributed to Eric Rodriguez, Senior Vice President, UnidosUS: “All children should have the right to privacy and live free from discrimination, including in digital spaces. Latino children are targeted by digital marketing efforts and with real consequences to their health and wellbeing. UnidosUS urges the Commission to use its authority and study how children of color operate in the digital space, what happens to their personal data, and how well they are protected by COPPA. Only then can the Commission take effective and objective action to strengthen COPPA to protect an increasingly diverse youth population.”