Notice2025-04871
Agency Information Collection Activities; Submission for OMB Review; Comment Request; Extension
Primary source
Metadata and text below are from the Federal Register, a public-domain U.S. government work. Always verify the official published version before relying on it for any legal matter.
Published
March 21, 2025
Issuing agencies
Federal Trade Commission
Abstract
The Federal Trade Commission ("FTC" or "Commission") requests that the Office of Management and Budget ("OMB") extend for an additional three years the current Paperwork Reduction Act ("PRA") clearance for information collection requirements contained in the Children's Online Privacy Protection Rule ("COPPA Rule" or "Rule"). That clearance expires on April 30, 2025.
Full Text
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<title>Federal Register, Volume 90 Issue 54 (Friday, March 21, 2025)</title>
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[Federal Register Volume 90, Number 54 (Friday, March 21, 2025)]
[Notices]
[Pages 13365-13367]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [<a href="http://www.gpo.gov">www.gpo.gov</a>]
[FR Doc No: 2025-04871]
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FEDERAL TRADE COMMISSION
Agency Information Collection Activities; Submission for OMB
Review; Comment Request; Extension
AGENCY: Federal Trade Commission.
ACTION: Notice.
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SUMMARY: The Federal Trade Commission (``FTC'' or ``Commission'')
requests that the Office of Management and Budget (``OMB'') extend for
an additional three years the current Paperwork Reduction Act (``PRA'')
clearance for information collection requirements contained in the
Children's Online Privacy Protection Rule (``COPPA Rule'' or ``Rule'').
That clearance expires on April 30, 2025.
DATES: Comments must be filed by April 21, 2025.
ADDRESSES: Interested parties may file a comment online or on paper, by
following the instructions in the Request for Comment part of the
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION section below. Written comments and
recommendations for the proposed information collection should be sent
within 30 days of publication of this notice to <a href="http://www.reginfo.gov/public/do/PRAMain">www.reginfo.gov/public/do/PRAMain</a>. Find this particular information collection by selecting
``Currently under 30-day Review--Open for Public Comments'' or by using
the search function.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: James Trilling, Attorney, (202) 326-
3497, Division of Privacy and Identity Protection, Bureau of Consumer
Protection, Federal Trade Commission, 600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW,
Washington, DC 20580.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
Title of Collection: Children's Online Privacy Protection Rule, 16
CFR part 312.
OMB Control Number: 3084-0117.
Type of Review: Extension without change of currently approved
collection.
Affected Public: Private Sector: Businesses and other for-profit
entities.
Estimated Annual Burden Hours: 26,600.\1\
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\1\ This is an increase from the estimate of 17,600 hours per
year the Commission set forth in the September 30, 2024 Federal
Register Notice regarding the FTC's request that OMB extend for an
additional three years the current PRA clearance for information
collection requirements contained in the COPPA Rule. See 89 FR 79596
(Sept. 30, 2024) (``September 2024 Notice''). The increase is due to
FTC staff subsequently using a different, more up-to-date data
source to estimate the number of new operators subject to the COPPA
Rule per year. See section 12.1.a of the Supporting Statement for
the Children's Online Privacy Protection Rule (``Supporting
Statement'') that the Commission is contemporaneously submitting to
OMB, available at <a href="https://www.reginfo.gov/public/do/PRAMain">https://www.reginfo.gov/public/do/PRAMain</a>. The
hours estimate set forth in the September 2024 Notice was based on
the FTC staff estimating 280 new operators per year; the updated
hours estimate in this notice is based on FTC staff estimating 430
new operators per year (increase of 150 additional new operators per
year x 60 estimated annual hours burden per new operator = 9,000
hour increase in estimated annual burden hours). In addition, the
hour amount set out after the heading ``Estimated Annual Burden
Hours:'' in the September 2024 Notice contained a typo. See 89 FR
79596. The ``Burden Statement'' portion of that Notice stated the
correct estimated annual burden that FTC had calculated at the time
of the September 2024 Notice: 17,600 hours.
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[[Page 13366]]
Estimated Annual Labor Costs: $14,381,493.\2\
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\2\ This is an increase from the estimate of $8,687,169 in
annual labor costs the Commission set forth in the September 2024
Notice. The increase is attributable to increases in the estimated
number of covered entities (see supra footnote 1), the estimated
hourly wage rates of legal counsel and technical personnel utilized
by new covered entities to comply with the Rule's online and direct
notice and verifiable parental consent requirements (see section
12.2.a of the Supporting Statement), the estimated hourly wage rates
of in-house lawyers utilized to comply with new COPPA Safe Harbor
program applicant requirements (see section 12.2.b of the Supporting
Statement), and the estimated hourly wage rates of compliance
officers utilized by FTC-approved COPPA Safe Harbor programs to
prepare and submit to the Commission their annual reports required
by the Rule (see section 12.2.c of the Supporting Statement).
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Estimated Annual Non-Labor Costs: $0.
Abstract: The COPPA Rule, 16 CFR part 312, requires commercial
websites and online services to provide notice and obtain parental
consent before collecting, using, or disclosing personal information
from children under age thirteen, with limited exceptions. The COPPA
Rule contains certain statutorily required notice, consent, and other
requirements that apply to operators of any commercial website or
online service directed to children that collect personal information,
and operators of any commercial website or online service with actual
knowledge that they are collecting personal information from children.
The Rule also applies to operators that have actual knowledge that they
are collecting personal information directly from users of another
website or online service that is directed to children. Covered
operators must, among other things: (1) provide online notice and
direct notice to parents of how they collect, use, and disclose
children's personal information; (2) obtain the prior consent of the
child's parent in order to engage in such collection, use, and
disclosure; (3) provide reasonable means for the parent to obtain
access to the information and to direct its deletion; and (4) establish
procedures that protect the confidentiality, security, and integrity of
personal information collected from children.
Request for Comment:
On September 30, 2024, the FTC sought public comment on the
information collection requirements associated with the COPPA Rule. 89
FR 79596 (Sept. 30, 2024) (``September 2024 Notice''). The Commission
received three responsive comments.\3\
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\3\ The Commission received a total of four comments, all of
which are available at <a href="https://www.regulations.gov/docket/FTC-2024-0038/comments">https://www.regulations.gov/docket/FTC-2024-0038/comments</a>. One comment was not responsive; it discussed issues
related to health insurance enrollment and coverage rather than
issues related to the information collection requirements associated
with the COPPA Rule. See Cmt. FTC-2024-0038-0002.
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One comment asserted that ``decreasing the time and financial
burden of new online operators to draft their privacy policies is
beneficial to everyone involved,'' suggested generally that using
``simple language and formatting'' in privacy policies ``that can be
understood by a child'' might lower the burden of drafting and enhance
the quality of the policies, and stated that Truth in Lending Act
disclosure forms might be instructive for enhancing the quality of and
lowering operators' burdens in drafting privacy policies.\4\ A second
comment asserted that ``[r]educing redundant questions or allowing
automated data entry options could help decrease the time burden'' for
the Rule's information collection requirements and suggested that the
Commission implement digital tools for easier data submission, offer
webinars or tutorials to clarify the purpose and process of complying
with the information collection requirements, and regularly review the
collected data to ensure that it is achieving the intended outcomes
without overburdening entities subject to the COPPA Rule.\5\ Neither of
these comments connected its general recommendations to specific
information collection requirements associated with the COPPA Rule or
the accuracy of the burden estimates set forth in the September 2024
Notice. For example, the COPPA Rule does not require entities to answer
redundant questions. Covered operators have flexibility to draft
simple, straightforward privacy policies, and the COPPA Rule already
requires operators to provide clearly understandable privacy notices.
Consequently, these comments did not provide a basis for the Commission
to modify any of the statements or estimates the Commission set forth
in the September 2024 Notice.
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\4\ See Cmt. FTC-2024-0038-0003.
\5\ See Cmt. FTC-2024-0038-0004.
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kidSAFE, one of the FTC-approved COPPA Safe Harbor programs,
asserted that the September 2024 Notice underestimated the amount of
time that FTC-approved COPPA Safe Harbor programs spend annually to
audit members and submit annual reports to the Commission on the
aggregate results of these audits.\6\ More specifically, kidSAFE
asserted that the September 2024 Notice's annual time burden estimate
of approximately 100 hours per FTC-approved COPPA Safe Harbor program
does not sufficiently account for both the time kidSAFE spends
preparing its annual report to the Commission and the time it spends
overseeing and reviewing its subject operators' compliance with its
program guidelines--including by engaging in ``randomized, year-round
routine monitoring and compliance maintenance''--so that it has the
information necessary to complete the annual report.\7\ Accordingly,
kidSAFE recommended that the Commission differentiate the time that
FTC-approved COPPA Safe Harbor programs spend assessing subject
operators' compliance with their program guidelines from the time the
programs spend preparing and submitting their annual reports to the
FTC.\8\ In response, the Commission clarifies that the September 2024
Notice's 100 hour per FTC-approved COPPA Safe Harbor program time
burden estimate is an estimate of the time FTC-approved COPPA Safe
Harbor programs spend preparing their annual reports to the Commission.
The COPPA Rule requires Safe Harbor programs' annual reports to the
Commission to contain an aggregated summary of the results of the
programs' assessments of subject operators' compliance with their
program guidelines,\9\ so the PRA time estimate includes Safe Harbor
programs' preparation of their annual reports using the information
they gathered during their annual assessments of their members'
compliance with their program guidelines. However, the PRA time
estimate does not include the time the Safe Harbor programs spend
assessing members' compliance with the guidelines. The time that Safe
Harbor programs spend assessing members' compliance with program
guidelines is not time spent complying with ``collection of
information'' obligations under the PRA.\10\
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\6\ See Cmt. FTC-2024-0038-0006, at 2.
\7\ Id. at 2-3.
\8\ Id. at 3.
\9\ See 16 CFR 312.11(d)(1).
\10\ Under the PRA, ``collection of information'' occurs when
ten or more persons are asked to report, provide, disclose, or
record information in response to ``identical questions.'' See 44
U.S.C. 3502(3)(A). FTC-approved COPPA Safe Harbor programs'
assessments of members' compliance with the programs' guidelines do
not constitute a ``collection of information'' because the COPPA
Rule's requirement for Safe Harbor programs to assess each subject
operator's compliance with the Safe Harbor programs' member
guidelines no less than annually does not constitute asking ten or
more persons to report, provide, disclose, or record information in
response to identical questions. The FTC-approved COPPA Safe Harbor
programs' member guidelines vary from each other. The COPPA Rule
does not mandate the process that each Safe Harbor program uses to
assess members' compliance with its guidelines, and the process
varies from program to program.
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Based on the compensation it pays to its professionals, kidSAFE
also suggested that the September 2024 Notice's estimate of the mean
hourly wage of the compliance officers who prepare FTC-approved COPPA
Safe Harbors' annual reports to the Commission ($38.55) was too
low.\11\ kidSAFE's comment does not set forth a basis for the
Commission to increase the estimated mean hourly wage of compliance
officers who prepare annual reports. It is not clear the extent to
which kidSAFE's assertion is based on the hourly wages of individuals
who assess operators' compliance with kidSAFE's guidelines--which, as
explained above, is activity that the September 2024 Notice does not
encompass--or whether those individuals' hourly wages are higher than
the hourly wages of individuals who prepare kidSAFE's annual report to
the Commission. Moreover, the Commission did not receive any other
comments asserting that the September 2024 Notice's reliance on the
Bureau of Labor Statistics' wage information to estimate the mean
hourly wage of compliance officers was misplaced, and kidSAFE's
assertions regarding the wages that it pays compliance officers do not
provide any insight on other FTC-approved COPPA Safe Harbor programs'
experience.
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\11\ See Cmt. FTC-2024-0038-0006, at 2.
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Pursuant to OMB regulations, 5 CFR part 1320, that implement the
PRA, 44 U.S.C. 3501 et seq., the FTC is providing this second
opportunity for public comment while seeking OMB approval to renew the
pre-existing clearance for the Rule. For more details about the COPPA
Rule's requirements and the basis for the calculations summarized
above, see 89 FR 79596.
Your comment--including your name and your state--will be placed on
the public record of this proceeding. Because your comment will be made
public, you are solely responsible for making sure that your comment
does not include any sensitive personal information, such as anyone's
Social Security number; date of birth; driver's license number or other
state identification number or foreign country equivalent; passport
number; financial account number; or credit or debit card number. You
are also solely responsible for ensuring that your comment does not
include any sensitive health information, such as medical records or
other individually identifiable health information. In addition, your
comment should not include any ``trade secret or any commercial or
financial information which is . . . privileged or confidential''--as
provided in Section 6(f) of the FTC Act, 15 U.S.C. 46(f), and FTC Rule
4.10(a)(2), 16 CFR 4.10(a)(2)--including, in particular, competitively
sensitive information, such as costs, sales statistics, inventories,
formulas, patterns, devices, manufacturing processes, or customer
names.
Josephine Liu,
Assistant General Counsel for Legal Counsel.
[FR Doc. 2025-04871 Filed 3-20-25; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 6750-01-P
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</html>Indexed from Federal Register on March 21, 2025.
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