United States of America: FTC Policy Statement announcing investigation into children's privacy in education technology sector

On 19 May 2022, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) adopted a Policy Statement on children's privacy protection with regards to data collection in educational technology. The FTC stated its intention to investigate educational technology companies for potential breaches of children's privacy protection regulations as enacted in the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA). Specifically, the FTC will focus on breaches of the prohibition against mandatory collection, by which providing more personal information than is reasonable cannot be a condition for access to educational services, as well as on breaches of rules regarding data use, retention, and security by educational technology companies.