[OSM-legal-talk] Privacy and Terms

[Ed Avis]

Ulf Möller <usenet at ...> writes:

>>The idea of restricting access to age 13+ strikes me as odd in the
>>extreme. When I get some time I'll do some research into what is going
>>on in the US that makes them do this.
>
>http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Children%27s_Online_Privacy_Protection_Act

Is there any indication that putting a paragraph of boilerplate text somewhere
on your website does *anything at all* to comply with this Act?

If, let us suppose, the Act says you may not gather data from under 13s, there
is unlikely to be an exemption that says you may do so as long as you have some
text somewhere saying that you don't.  Or that it somehow becomes not your
responsibility if you have some text somewhere saying that under 13s should not
use the site (which you do nothing to enforce).

There might be some subtle legal reason why adding certain incantations to a
'Terms and conditions' page somewhere will absolve you from blame, but I'm not
seeing it at first glance.

-- 
Ed Avis <eda at waniasset.com>