FTC Adds Online Parental Consent Method to Privacy Guidance

Lindsey Tonsager is quoted in a Bloomberg Law article regarding the FTC's updated guidance that includes adding online-based questions as a method of obtaining parental consent under the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act. According to Tonsager, the new methods are a quick way for parents to give consent without having to mail in forms, and will largely benefit companies that have large amounts of data. 

Although companies have found knowledge-based consent to be secure and reliable, she says, it is an expensive method for small companies. The method works better for larger companies that have a lot of consumer data and can either ask and verify questions for themselves or afford to rely on a third-party vendor. Tonsager adds that a curious side effect of knowledge-based questions is that, if a company is only collecting limited information, such as persistent identifiers or internet protocol addresses, answers to knowledge-based questions give companies more sensitive data than they would otherwise be collecting.