CUNA has told the Federal Trade Commission it supports the agency's proposal to make permanent the provisions regarding website operators to obtain parental consent by e-mail when they collect information from children that is used only for internal purposes.
Additionally, CUNA told the SEC it supports retaining the "sliding scale" approach, which outlines different consent requirements depending on how information is used and requires more reliable and costly methods of obtaining parental consent for disclosure of children's information to third parties.
The rules, first issued in 1999 were aimed at operators of websites directed at children to use e-mails as a means of obtaining parental consent for the collection of personal information from children. The provisions are set to expire April 21.
"The use of e-mails, along with a means to verify that consent was received from the parent provides a flexible approach to protect information from children that is used solely for internal purposes," CUNA said in its letter.
Meanwhile, on the issue of the "sliding scale," the trade group told the FTC "We believe that without the sliding scale controls in place, website operators will be more inclined to release information to third parties, since monetary incentives to use the information for internal purposes only would no longer exist. We believe that external release of information increases the likelihood that the information could be misused and agree with the proposed rule's Statement of Basis and Purpose that 'disclosures to third parties are among the most sensitive and potentially risky uses of children's personal information.'"
