PROTECT Kids Act

I 116TH CONGRESS 2D SESSION H. R. 5573 To amend the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act of 1998. IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES JANUARY 9, 2020 Mr. WALBERG (for himself and Mr. RUSH) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Energy and Commerce A BILL To amend the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act of 1998. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa- 1 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 3 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Preventing Real Online 4 Threats Endangering Children Today’’ or the ‘‘PRO- 5 TECT Kids Act’’. 6 SEC. 2. AMENDMENTS TO THE CHILDREN’S ONLINE PRI- 7 VACY PROTECTION ACT OF 1998. 8 The Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act of 1998 9 (15 U.S.C. 6501 et seq.) is amended— 10 VerDate Sep 11 2014 02:18 Jan 11, 2020 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H5573.IH H5573 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 2 •HR 5573 IH (1) by inserting ‘‘, including a service provided 1 through a mobile application,’’ after ‘‘online service’’ 2 each place it appears; 3 (2) in section 1302— 4 (A) in paragraph (1), by striking ‘‘age of 5 13’’ and inserting ‘‘age of 16’’; 6 (B) in paragraph (8)— 7 (i) in the matter preceding subpara- 8 graph (A), by inserting ‘‘including a serv- 9 ice provided through a mobile application’’ 10 after ‘‘collected online’’; 11 (ii) by redesignating subparagraphs 12 (F) and (G) as subparagraphs (H) and (I), 13 respectively; and 14 (iii) by inserting after subparagraph 15 (E) the following: 16 ‘‘(F) precise geolocation information; 17 ‘‘(G) biometric information;’’; and 18 (C) by adding at the end the following: 19 ‘‘(13) MOBILE APPLICATION.—The term ‘mo- 20 bile application’ means a software program that 21 runs on the operating system of— 22 ‘‘(A) a mobile telephone; 23 ‘‘(B) a tablet computer; or 24 VerDate Sep 11 2014 02:18 Jan 11, 2020 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00002 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H5573.IH H5573 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 3 •HR 5573 IH ‘‘(C) a similar portable computing device 1 that transmits data over a wireless connection. 2 ‘‘(14) BIOMETRIC INFORMATION.—The term 3 ‘biometric information’ means the record of any 4 unique, immutable biological attribute or measure- 5 ment generated by automatic measurements of a 6 consumer’s biological characteristics, including fin- 7 gerprints, genetic information, iris or retina pat- 8 terns, facial characteristics, or hand geometry, that 9 are used to uniquely and durably authenticate the 10 identity of a consumer when such consumer accesses 11 a physical location, device, system, or account. 12 ‘‘(15) PRECISE GEOLOCATION INFORMATION.— 13 The term ‘precise geolocation information’ means 14 historical or real-time location information, or infer- 15 ences drawn from other information, capable of iden- 16 tifying the location of an individual or a consumer 17 device of an individual with specificity sufficient to 18 identify street level location information or an indi- 19 vidual’s or device’s location within a range of 1,640 20 feet or less.’’; and 21 (3) in section 1303(b)— 22 (A) in paragraph (1)— 23 VerDate Sep 11 2014 02:18 Jan 11, 2020 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H5573.IH H5573 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 4 •HR 5573 IH (i) in subparagraph (A)(I), by insert- 1 ing ‘‘or mobile application’’ after 2 ‘‘website’’; and 3 (ii) in subparagraph (B)(ii), by strik- 4 ing ‘‘use or maintenance in retrievable 5 form, or future online collection’’ and in- 6 serting ‘‘collection or use’’; and 7 (B) by amending paragraph (3) to read as 8 follows: 9 ‘‘(3) CONTINUATION OF SERVICE.—The regula- 10 tions shall— 11 ‘‘(A) prohibit the operator of a website, on- 12 line service, or mobile application from termi- 13 nating service provided to a child whose parent 14 has refused, under the regulations prescribed 15 under paragraph (1)(B)(ii), to permit the oper- 16 ator’s further collection or use of personal in- 17 formation from that child, or has required such 18 operator to delete such information; and 19 ‘‘(B) require the operator, upon request of 20 a parent whose child has provided personal in- 21 formation to that website or, online service, in- 22 cluding a service provided through a mobile ap- 23 plication, upon proper identification of that par- 24 VerDate Sep 11 2014 02:18 Jan 11, 2020 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00004 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H5573.IH H5573 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 5 •HR 5573 IH ent, to delete any personal information collected 1 from such child.’’. 2 SEC. 3. FEDERAL TRADE COMMISSION STUDY. 3 (a) IN GENERAL.— 4 (1) Not later than 2 years after the date of en- 5 actment of this Act, the Commission shall conduct 6 a study on the knowledge standard found in section 7 1303(a)(1) of the Children’s Online Privacy Protec- 8 tion Act of 1998 (15 U.S.C. 6501 et seq). 9 (2) In conducting such study, the Commission 10 shall— 11 (A) consider whether the existing knowl- 12 edge standard is still appropriate for accom- 13 plishing the goals of this Act; 14 (B) consider the affect changing such 15 knowledge standard will have on children’s on- 16 line privacy, including whether it will increase 17 or decrease such privacy; 18 (C) consider the feasibility of complying 19 with any change to such knowledge standard; 20 (D) whether any Federal agency has stud- 21 ied such change; and 22 (E) whether any think tank or privacy ad- 23 vocacy or digital rights group has studied such 24 a change. 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 02:18 Jan 11, 2020 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00005 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H5573.IH H5573 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 6 •HR 5573 IH (3) Based on the study, the Commission shall— 1 (A) develop recommendations as to wheth- 2 er the knowledge standard should be changed; 3 (B) develop recommendations as to what 4 the new knowledge standard should be, if ap- 5 propriate; 6 (C) provide the basis for its recommenda- 7 tion to change the knowledge standard, if ap- 8 propriate; 9 (D) cite examples of Federal agency stud- 10 ies on changing the knowledge standard; and 11 (E) cite examples of think tank or privacy 12 advocacy or digital rights group studies on 13 changing the knowledge standard. 14 (b) REPORT TO CONGRESS.—Following completion of 15 the study pursuant to subsection (a), the Commission shall 16 report the results and recommendations to the Committee 17 on Energy and Commerce of the House of Representatives 18 and the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transpor- 19 tation of the Senate. 20 Æ VerDate Sep 11 2014 02:18 Jan 11, 2020 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00006 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6301 E:\BILLS\H5573.IH H5573 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS