Aristotle's Integrity Complies with FTC's Proposed Revisions to Children's Online Privacy Protection Rule

WASHINGTON, Aug. 3, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) announced Wednesday its proposed revisions to the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA), extending the comment period until September 10.  The Integrity Children's Privacy Compliance Program, designed by Aristotle International and approved by the Federal Trade Commission as a "Safe Harbor" program for COPPA compliance meets the requirements for sites that would be affected by the proposed revisions.

"The Commission has proposed to expand the universe of child-directed sites and services that collect personal information from children that will need to comply with COPPA," said Aristotle CEO John Aristotle Phillips. "Aristotle's recent Safe Harbor approval is good news for these sites, as it offers innovative ways to comply with the existing law, and the changes that have been proposed.

"The Integrity Children's Privacy Compliance Program protects children's privacy by helping websites meet the standards established by the FTC, and gives companies commercially reasonable ways to obtain parental consent prior to engaging children online. This innovative application of technology obtains a parent's clear, unambiguous consent so that children can safely enjoy age-appropriate websites."

Integrity enables sites that focus on children 12 and younger, and even those that do not, to easily meet COPPA-compliance requirements, by leveraging Integrity's extensive identity information to empower real-time verification of parents. This is an important safety enhancement in the virtual world and game environments, particularly where immediate approval is desired without the requirement of a credit card. 

Integrity has integrated modern technology into the parental verification process. The 13 online and offline mechanisms include real-time face-to-face verification of parents via Skype or similar videoconferencing technologies. It gives the parents the authority to say, "I am the adult responsible for this child and you may include him or her in this activity." If a parent says "no," the child may not participate. Where the provider is an online business, the FTC-approved safe harbor program is insurance against legal exposure and brand risk.

To earn safe harbor approval, the Integrity program had to fulfill three criteria:

1. Provide the same or greater protections for children as those contained in the Rule;
2. Set forth effective, mandatory mechanisms for the independent assessment of Members' compliance; and
3. Provide effective incentives for Members' compliance.

Aristotle's safe harbor application was published in a Federal Register notice June 27, 2011, after which the FTC sought public comment through August 15, 2011. The Commission vote to approve the Aristotle safe harbor application was 4-0.

About Aristotle 
Aristotle has delivered smarter tools to political campaigns since 1983. Every U.S. President -- Democrat and Republican -- from Reagan through Obama, has used Aristotle products and/or services, as have many U.S. Senators, members of the U.S. House of Representatives, Democratic and Republican state party organizations and other major campaigns worldwide.

About Integrity
Integrity services more countries and has greater depth of information worldwide than any other provider with over 135 countries and 3.4 billion records internationally. Changes in country demographics make this important and companies find global coverage is essential in modern borderless internet economies.

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SOURCE Aristotle International