Re: New Federal Law (COPPA)

["Branden R. Williams" <brw () netvitality net>]

On Mon, 24 Apr 2000, Robert Cannon wrote:

> One website that collects personal data had a field for Date of Birth.  
> If you entered a DOB that meant that you were underaged, the webpage
> refused to go further.  Thus, the webpage could collect the data where

Is the law specific enough that if you validate but do not store the data
you are not in violation?  For instance, you could use either client-side
javascript or some sort of server validation that would never store
anything at that point, but simply "validate" whether or not the user can
use your site.  If they are "of age," then the site functionality would
continue, otherwise redirect them to www.disney.com.

Also...  What if a user falsifies their DOB to gain access to the
site?  Is the company not liable at that point?  I would assume they would
not be liable, but Microsoft probably assumed they would never be broken
up because of anti-trust violations.  Well, maybe they did.

Cheers,

Branden R. Williams <brw () netvitality net>
Vice President, Systems - NetVitality, Inc.
http://www.netvitality.net/
Internet Commerce Specialists