Teen COPPA?

The Federal Trade Commission testified that while teens are heavy users of the digital environment and may benefit from using the Internet to socialize with peers, learn about issues that interest them, and express themselves, it also can pose unique challenges for them. The FTC testimony to the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation, Subcommittee on Consumer Protection, Product Safety, and Insurance notes that the Commission will continue to use law enforcement, education, and policy tools to protect teens in the digital environment.

Important Developments within Behavioral Advertising in Europe

Behavior advertising is not solely a contemporary and hotly debated issue on these shores. Case in point, last month the influential Article 29 Working Party ("Working Party"), consisting of all the European Union's national data privacy regulators, adopted Opinion 2/2010 on online behavioral advertising (the "Opinion").

The Working Party has made it clear they are taking on the challenge of creating better checks and balances for digital advertising through its national implementation of amended Directive 2002/58/EC (the "ePrivacy Directive"). This Directive calls for a complete overhaul of existing technology and practice, including currently available browsers and opt-out mechanisms, thereby seeking to achieve the level of informed consent from users which they claim the national law requires.

To view the entire alert please click here. This alert was written by Cynthia O'Donoghue and Nick Tyler of Reed Smith in London, England. For additional information please contact one of the authors.

What We're Reading 7/12/2010

What We're Reading

Reuters:  Twitter settles privacy charges with U.S.

Microblogging service Twitter has agreed to a settlement with the U.S. Federal Trade Commission over charges it put its customers privacy at risk by failing to safeguard their personal information.

 

Environmental Leader:  Survey Finds Consumers Still Buying ‘Green’ Products

U.S. consumers are buying the same or more environmentally responsible products, regardless of region, age, gender or state of the economy, according to a second annual survey commissioned by SCA and conducted by Harris Interactive.

  

Multichannel News:  Bill Would Preempt Multiple Net Taxes - NCTA, Verizon Support The Proposed Legislation

Let the online goods flow freely, or at least more freely.

That was the message Thursday from the Hill, where Reps. Rick Boucher (D-Va.) and Lamar Smith (R-Tex.) have introduced a bill that prohibits state and local duplicative taxation of Internet transactions. Boucher is chair of the House Communications Subcommittee, while Smith is the ranking member of the Judiciary Committee.

  

Environmental Leader:  Online Database to Compare Ecolabels

A new online database created by World Resources Institute (WRI) and Big Room Inc. will allow companies and consumers to compare claims between different environmental certifications for food and consumer products, according to a press release.

 

LA Times:  Wrigley agrees to settle lawsuit over ads for Eclipse gum

Chewing gum maker W.M. Wrigley Jr. has agreed to pay as much as $7 million and change how it markets and labels its Eclipse gum to settle a lawsuit that alleged its ads were misleading, attorneys for the plaintiffs said Tuesday.