Virtual Assistants Such As Amazon's Echo Break US Child Privacy Law, Experts Say (theguardian.com)

Mark Harris, reporting for The Guardian: An investigation by the Guardian has found that despite Amazon marketing the Echo to families with young children, the device is likely to contravene the US Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA), set up to regulate the collection and use of personal information from anyone younger than 13. Along with Google, Apple and others promoting voice-activated artificial intelligence systems to young children, the company could now face multimillion-dollar fines. "This is part of the initial wave of marketing to children using the internet of things," says Jeff Chester, executive director of the Center for Digital Democracy, a privacy advocacy group that helped write the law. "It is exactly why the law was enacted in the first place, to protect young people from pervasive data collection."

Comments

Children are not buying these devices.

[ScentCone]

How is this not simply the parents' choice? Kids aren't buying Echo units and installing/using them. It's parents. If they make the conscious decision to introduce such a device into their homes, and decide to use them, that's all there is to it. They have chosen to be a household that uses this device and its associated services. If they don't like the implications of that, they can simply choose not to put the device in a space where kids will interact with it, or choose not to use it at all.

People who are trying to make it more complicated than that are just looking for ways to get government more involved in what goes on inside the home.

Re:Children are not buying these devices.

[ninthbit]

It's not just Echos. We've cut the cord and my kids use Roku's to watch most of their TV. Services like Hulu track all that garbage, but are making absolutely no effort to determine the viewers age. Netflix at least has age categories you can assign to profiles, but I don't see any COPPA parental control panel for the young kids. Its only to limit the catalog to the less sexual/violent media. I'm sure their lawyers give them the "It's technically legal because it's just one account" thumbs up. But if Hulu is recommending to me to watch Daniel Tiger, then clearly my kids viewing data is being saved. Saying it's the parents choice, is like saying its the parents choice to let kids use the Internet. My 9 year old daughter doesn't have a choice, her homework from school requires her to go to certain websites. I'm not suggesting that COOPA is or isn't effective, or that further regulations are needed. I'm just pointing out that "parents choice" isn't a very valid argument.

Re:Children are not buying these devices.

[Dutch Gun]

I think the article answers this reasonably well:

COPPA applies to online services that are either designed for children younger than 13 or that know those children are using them. Khaliah Barnes, associate director of the Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC), believes that by showing pre-teenage children using voice-activated AI devices, Amazon, Google and Apple are admitting their services are aimed at youngsters.

“When your advertising markets this product to children, and parents with children, that would absolutely trigger COPPA,” she says. “Recording children in the privacy of the home is genuinely creepy, and this warrants additional investigation by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and [US] states.”

Siri is being advertised using Sesame Street's cookie monster (check out TFA). That's absolutely targeted at children. And of course, we've heard about the toy products like Barbie that sends recorded data out across the net to a server where it's processed and responded to. I think the big problem is that the parents aren't necessarily aware of the implications of these devices. No one is explicitly told that everything they say is recorded and transmitted to corporate headquarters. Would people be slightly more averse to putting these devices in the home if they knew they were essentially constantly-on, remotely controlled microphones? Maybe... maybe not.

I'm definitely not a "regulate first and ask questions later" sort of guy, so I'd say it's probably best to simply watch this space really carefully. We can always introduce new, specific legislation as the need arises to deal with potential threats. I think it's generally a bad idea for legislation to try to preempt problems that don't actually exist yet - you know... "for the children", etc. But that doesn't mean we shouldn't keep a close eye on what's happening here.

Parenting - you, or the state?

[fyngyrz]

As a parent, are you not old enough (informed enough should be the metric, but our society is bewildered about age) to decide if your kids can use the device?

Oh, right, parenting. Not allowed to do that any longer, my bad. "It takes a village" (to pillage your informed personal and consensual choices, not to mention parenting.) Of course you're not old enough. We'll decide that for you. Move along. Move along.

Re:All your kids are belong to us

[cayenne8]

Hey....

The kids gotta learn to start ignoring ads at some point in their life.

Maybe we're looking at this wrong. Educate them early on what worthless advertising is...and train them to ignore it.

This will greatly benefit them as young and older adults.

No, they do not

[DRJlaw]

Do not take the Guardian and the Center for Digital Democracy at their word.

Read the guidance contained in the second link of the summary. Specifically, read: "Who is covered by COPPA" here.

The Rule applies to operators of commercial websites and online services directed to children under the age of 13 that collect personal information. In addition, it applies to operators of sites and online services geared toward general audiences when they have "actual knowledge" they are collecting information from children under 13.
* * *
The Rule doesn't require operators of sites or services directed to general audiences to investigate the ages of its users. However, asking for or otherwise collecting information that establishes that a visitor is under 13 triggers COPPA compliance.

This is a general audience device and service, full stop. I don't have one, so I cannot say whether they even permit the associated account to be set up by a child 13 or under, or allow multiple user accounts with accounts for children 13 or under, but if I were to purchase one, set it up with my Amazon (or Google, for their device) account, and allow everyone in the house to use the device under that account, there would be no violation of COPPA.

The targeting and "actual knowledge" requirements cannot be deemed fulfilled simply because an advertisement shows a child and the service knows that children might be using the service.

FTA:

"Khaliah Barnes, associate director of the Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC), believes that by showing pre-teenage children using voice-activated AI devices, Amazon, Google and Apple are admitting their services are aimed at youngsters."

No, that is a general audience that happens to include children. Targeting children requires a service aspect specifically directed to children.

Notice that the one thing the article does not say is that the FTC has opened an investigation. Merely that the CDD "[is] going to recommend to the FTC that they give industry guidance of how the internet of things and COPPA should work together."

Very little to see here, then...

Re:All your kids are belong to us

[ShanghaiBill]

The kids gotta learn to start ignoring ads at some point in their life.

I have an Amazon Echo, use it everyday, and have never once heard an ad for anything. This is not about ads. It is about recording voices, and storing the data. They store the data so they can improve their algorithms, and users can provide feedback if the Echo misunderstands a request. They may use the data for other things as well.