Washington, DC: The key framework that is supposed to protect EU citizens’ privacy when their data is collected by U.S. companies—known as the U.S.-EU Safe Harbor—is failing to provide them the safeguards that were promised, according to a complaint filed today by a leading U.S. consumer privacy group—the Center for Digital Democracy (CDD). The complaint, filed at the U.S.

As part of the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA), the federal law protecting the digital privacy of kids 12 and under (and which empowers parents or other key caregivers to control the data collected from children), a so-called "Safe Harbor" system was created.  The theory being that companies joining a FTC approved Safe Harbor regime, which is commited to ensuring meaningful compliance with COPPA, is an effective way to have companies follow the law.  Yesterday was the deadline for Safe Harbor reports to be submitted to the FTC, and the first once since the new stronger safe

Statement from Hudson Kingston, CDD Legal Director:

The Federal Trade Commission's Bureau of Consumer Protection sent a letter to Facebook and Whatsapp [attached] requiring the companies to honor the latter's privacy promises (no advertising, highly limited data collection etc).  Facebook is in the process of acquiring Whatsapp.  The Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC) and CDD