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Yesterday the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) took an important step towards protecting children鈥檚 privacy online when it new rules interpreting the Children鈥檚 Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA). The FTC updated existing definitions to recognize that 鈥減ersonal information鈥� can include elements like Internet Protocol (IP) information and location information. These changes will help ensure that the personal information of kids isn鈥檛 collected without parental permission. Perhaps more significantly, it establishes an important precedent for how information on all of us should be treated going forward.

Online information collection has become a multi-billion dollar industry. As our lives have moved increasingly online, personal information has become a preferred currency of Internet advertisers, data aggregators and other actors. These private companies have found new and increasingly stealthy ways of tracking users鈥� habits online.

IP addresses, which were once considered anonymous, have become key online identifiers and now aid companies in tracking a wealth of personal information. IP addresses鈥攚hich are a series of numbers associated with a device, like a laptop or mobile phone鈥攏ow have the same utility as a name, postal address or social security number, thereby creating a direct link between individuals and their online activities. Using IP addresses and a variety of tracking technologies, private companies routinely follow people as they surf the web, sucking up private details about their interests, reading habits, friends and family, financial status, health information, and religious and political affiliation. This personal information is kept in individual profiles largely outside of the control or knowledge of the individual.

An excellent 2010 Wall Street Journal series on online privacy illustrated the extent to which individuals are being tracked and how the invasive practice can cause real harm. They spoke to a recent high-school graduate, who had been identified by advertisers as concerned about her weight. "Every time I go on the Internet," , she sees weight-loss ads. "I'm self-conscious about my weight. I try not to think about it鈥�. Then [the ads] make me start thinking about it.鈥�

Some companies claim to self-regulate by setting limits on the sensitive data that they collect in the interest of protecting Americans鈥� privacy. The restrictions, however, are arbitrary and voluntary. , Healthline says it doesn't let advertisers track users around the Internet who have viewed sensitive topics such as HIV/AIDS, sexually transmitted diseases, eating disorders and impotence. However, it does let advertisers track people with bipolar disorder, overactive bladder and anxiety, according to its own marketing materials.

The FTC鈥檚 inclusion of geo-location information as 鈥減ersonal information鈥� is also an important recognition of the sensitivity of data collected by location-enabled devices. All cell phones register their location with cell phone networks several times a minute, and this function cannot be turned off while the phone is getting a wireless signal. As the federal appeals court in Washington, D.C. :

A person who knows all of another's travels can deduce whether he is a weekly church goer, a heavy drinker, a regular at the gym, an unfaithful husband, an outpatient receiving medical treatment, an associate of particular individuals or political groups鈥攁nd not just one such fact about a person, but all such facts.

While the FTC鈥檚 mission is to protect consumers from private industry, privacy-protecting regulations also defend against overreaching government surveillance. The Privacy Act of 1974 regulates how government collects information on citizens. Since 9-11, however, the government鈥檚 desire to collect citizens鈥� personal information has skyrocketed. To get around this restriction, many from online data brokers.

By expanding the definition of 鈥減ersonal information鈥� under COPPA to include IP addresses and location information, the FTC has taken an important step in protecting children鈥檚 privacy online. While there are some First Amendment concerns with other aspects of the COPPA changes, it鈥檚 now critical that Congress and other agencies follow the FTC鈥檚 lead and provide these vital privacy protections to the rest of us.

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