Senators Introduce Bill Limiting Sales of Children’s Lists

Sens. Ron Wyden (D-OR) and Ted Stevens (R-AK) introduced legislation March 4 that would ban the sale or rental of personal information on consumers under age 16. The bill, S.2160, is commonly known as the Children’s Listbroker Privacy Act. At press time, it’s been referred for review to the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation.

The bill would permit the Federal Trade Commission to take action against any firm that sells a child’s name, home/physical address, e-mail address or online user name, telephone number, Social Security number or any other personally identifiable information.

According to the bill’s findings section, “Commercial list brokers routinely advertise and sell detailed information on children, including names, addresses, ages and other data, for use in marketing. This data is commonly available on children as young as 2 years old, enabling marketers to target specific demographics such as junior high school, elementary school or even preschool.”

The bill acknowledges provisions in the No Child Left Behind Act that address child data protection, as well as the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act and the Family and Educational Rights and Privacy Act. But it states that, “When data on children is collected in a manner outside the scope of those statutes, federal law does not significantly restrict the commercial sale or resale of such data.”

Additionally, the legislation notes that list marketers have “an economic incentive to find new and creative ways to collect and compile such information, and possibly to circumvent or subvert the intent of those federal statues that do govern the collection of information about children or students.”

The bill allows exemptions for sales made with parental consent, or use of data that does not involve the child being solicited for a sale.

Compiler InfoUSA doesn’t release information from its consumer database on anyone under age 18, and as it interprets the new bill, the material impact on its revenue should be minimal, said Sondra Robinson, InfoUSA’s senior vice president and chief privacy officer.

While it offers a list of high school students, the Omaha, NE-based company will subcontract the list from one of the firms in the industry that specializes in student data.

“We will broker that list, but we don’t want that data in our database. As long as it is a reputable client with a reputable need for that list, then and only then will we license that list on their behalf,” Robinson said.

One such client is American Student Lists of Mineola, NY. “We support children’s privacy,” said Greg Kalish, an ASL rep. “We have our own standards in place, which are self-imposed standards in the absence of legislation. We have continually adapted to meet all changes and will continue to do so.” American Student Lists offers a 20-million-name file titled “Preschool Through Junior High School Students.” Kalish wouldn’t say whether the list contained actual kids’ names or those of their parents.