Liberty Financial Companies Inc., which operates the Young Investor site on the World Wide Web, has agreed, without admitting any wrongdoing, to change the way it deals with information from children and teenagers to resolve administrative proceedings against it by the Federal Trade Commission.
The Boston-based large asset management company’s Web site is directed to children, focusing on issues relating to money and investing.
Under the agreement, the firm will post detailed privacy notice on its Web site and require written parental consent before collecting any personally identifying information from and about a child. The notice must disclose what information is being collected, its intended uses, to whom it will be disclosed and the means by which a parent or guardian can access and remove any information that’s been collected.
The FTC alleged that Liberty Financial falsely represented that personal information collected from children participating in a survey on its Web site would be maintained anonymously and that participants would receive an e-mail newsletter and prizes.
Children responding to the survey were allegedly asked about weekly allowances, savings for college and other financial matters, according to the FTC. It also alleged that the firm failed to send the promised e-mail newsletters and prizes to the children who participated in the survey.
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