opt-In policy/permission-based marketing

An opt-in policy requires a potential customer to self-select the

services they wish to subscribe to, and how any information they
provide may be used. Also referred to as permission-based
marketing.
In practice, an opt-in policy involves creating forms where
services such as email newsletter subscriptions are unchecked
by default. The benefit of this approach is that a user who has
actively considered the offering before signing-up, is a more
qualified potential customer.
opt- out policy
An opt-out policy is where an existing customer receives
electronic communicationsusually on the basis of a prior
relationshipwithout providing express permission.
The European Union Privacy and Electronics Communication
Directive (introduced in 2003), makes provision for electronic
communications (both email and text/SMS) to be initiated with
existing customers on the conditions that:
the communication relates to products or services similar to
those originally provided, and
the customer is provided with a means of opting-out of
further communication.

The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of

1996 (HIPAA; Pub.L. 104191, 110 Stat. 1936, enacted
August 21, 1996) was enacted by the United States Congress and
signed by President Bill Clinton in 1996. It has been known as
the KennedyKassebaum Act or KassebaumKennedy Act after
two of its leading sponsors.[1][2] Title I of HIPAA protects health
insurance coverage for workers and their families when they
change or lose their jobs. Title II of HIPAA, known as the
Administrative Simplification (AS) provisions, requires the
establishment of national standards for electronic health
care transactions and national identifiers for providers, health
insurance plans, and employers.[3]

The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of

2009 (ARRA) (Pub.L. 1115), commonly referred to as The
Stimulus or The Recovery Act, was a stimulus package enacted
by the 111th United States Congress in February 2009 and signed
into law on February 17, 2009, by President Barack Obama.

To respond to the Great Recession, the primary objective for ARRA

was to save and create jobs almost immediately. Secondary
objectives were to provide temporary relief programs for those
most affected by the recession and invest in infrastructure,
education, health, and renewable energy. The approximate cost of
the economic stimulus package was estimated to be $787 billion
at the time of passage, later revised to $831 billion between 2009
and 2019.[1] The Act included direct spending in infrastructure,
education, health, and energy, federal tax incentives, and
expansion of unemployment benefits and other social welfare
provisions. It also created the President's Economic Recovery
Advisory Board.

The rationale for ARRA was from Keynesian macroeconomic

theory, which argues that, during recessions, the government
should offset the decrease in private spending with an increase in
public spending in order to save jobs and stop further economic
deterioration. Shortly after the law was passed, Nobel
laureate Paul Krugman, while supportive of the law, criticized the
law for being too weak because it did not "even cover one third of
the (spending) gap".[2]

The Children's Online Privacy Protection Act of

1998 (COPPA) is a United States federal law, located at 15
U.S.C. 65016506 (Pub.L. 105277, 112 Stat. 2681-728,
enacted October 21, 1998).
The act, effective April 21, 2000, applies to the online collection of
personal information by persons or entities under
U.S. jurisdiction from children under 13 years of age. It details
what a website operator must include in a privacy policy, when
and how to seek verifiable consent from a parent or guardian, and
what responsibilities an operator has to protect children's privacy
and safety online including restrictions on the marketing to those
under 13.[1]

While children under 13 can legally give out personal information

with their parents' permission, many websites particularly social
media sites disallow underage children from using their
services altogether due to the cost and work involved in the
complying with the law.[2][3][4]

Violations[edit]

The FTC has brought a number of actions against website

operators for failure to comply with COPPA requirements,
including actions against Girl's Life, Inc., [10] American Pop Corn
Company,[11] Lisa Frank, Inc.,[12]Mrs. Field's Cookies, and Hershey
Foods.[13]

In February 2004, UMG Recordings, Inc. was fined US$400,000 for

COPPA violations in connection with a web site that promoted the
then 13-year-old pop star Lil' Romeo and hosted child-oriented
games and activities, and Bonzi Software, which offered
downloads of an animated figure "Bonzi Buddy" that provided
shopping advice, jokes, and trivia was fined US$75,000 for COPPA
violations.[14] Similarly, the owners of the Xanga website were
fined US$1 million in 2006 for COPPA violations of repeatedly
allowing children under 13 to sign up for the service without
getting their parent's consent.[15] Other websites that were
directed towards children and fined due to COPPA include Imbee
(2008)[16] Kidswirl (2011),[17] and Skid-e-Kids (2011).[18]
International scope[edit]

While COPPA is an American law, the Federal Trade Commission

has made it clear that the requirements of COPPA will apply to
foreign-operated web sites if such sites "are directed to children in
the U.S. or knowingly collect information from children in the
U.S."[25] Since the law is U.S. federal, it's applicable only to
websites that are run:[1][9]

by websites under U.S. jurisdiction;

by websites which are hosted on servers in the U.S.;

by websites with owners headquartered in U.S. territory; or

by commercial websites.

The Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act of 1974

(FERPA or the Buckley Amendment) is a United States federal
law that governs the access of educational information and
records.[1]

FERPA gives parents access to their child's education records, an

opportunity to seek to have the records amended, and some
control over the disclosure of information from the records. With
several exceptions, schools must have a student's consent prior
to the disclosure of education records after that student is 18
years old. The law applies only to educational agencies and
institutions that receive funding under a program administered by
the U.S. Department of Education. Other regulations under this
act, effective starting January 3, 2012, allow for greater
disclosures of personal and directory student identifying
information and regulate student IDs and e-mail addresses. [2]

Examples of situations affected by FERPA include school

employees divulging information to anyone other than the
student about the student's grades or behavior, and school work
posted on a bulletin board with a grade. Generally, schools must
have written permission from the parent or eligible student in
order to release any information from a student's education
record.

The Communications Act of 1934 is a United States federal

law, signed into law by President Franklin D. Roosevelt on June 19,
1934, and codified as Chapter 5 of Title 47 of the United States
Code, 47 U.S.C. 151 et seq. The Act replaced the Federal Radio
Commission with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC).
It also transferred regulation of interstate telephone services from
the Interstate Commerce Commission to the FCC.

The first section of the Act reads: "For the purpose of regulating
interstate and foreign commerce in communication by wire and
radio so as to make available, so far as possible, to all the people
of the United States a rapid, efficient, nationwide, and worldwide
wire and radio communication service with adequate facilities at
reasonable charges, for the purpose of the national defense, and
for the purpose of securing a more effective execution of this
policy by centralizing authority theretofore granted by law to
several agencies and by granting additional authority with respect
to interstate and foreign commerce in wire and radio
communication, there is hereby created a commission to be
known as the 'Federal Communications Commission', which shall
be constituted as hereinafter provided, and which shall execute
and enforce the provisions of this Act."[1]

On January 3, 1996, the 104th Congress of the United

States amended or repealed sections of the Communications Act
of 1934 with the newTelecommunications Act of 1996. It was the
first major overhaul of American telecommunications policy in
nearly 62 years.

AN ACT TO PROHIBIT AND PENALIZE WIRE TAPPING AND

OTHER RELATED VIOLATIONS OF THE PRIVACY OF
COMMUNICATION, AND FOR OTHER PURPOSES
Section 1. It shall be unlawful for any person, not being
authorized by all the parties to any private communication
or spoken word, to tap any wire or cable, or by using any
other device or arrangement, to secretly overhear,
intercept, or record such communication or spoken word
by using a device commonly known as a dictaphone or
dictagraph or detectaphone or walkie-talkie or tape
recorder, or however otherwise described:
It shall also be unlawful for any person, be he a
participant or not in the act or acts penalized in the next
preceding sentence, to knowingly possess any tape
record, wire record, disc record, or any other such record,
or copies thereof, of any communication or spoken word
secured either before or after the effective date of this Act
in the manner prohibited by this law; or to replay the
same for any other person or persons; or to communicate
the contents thereof, either verbally or in writing, or to
furnish transcriptions thereof, whether complete or
partial, to any other person: Provided, That the use of
such record or any copies thereof as evidence in any civil,
criminal investigation or trial of offenses mentioned in
Sec. 3 hereof, shall not be covered by this prohibition.
Sec. 2. Any person who wilfully or knowingly does or who
shall aid, permit, or cause to be done any of the acts
declared to be unlawful in the preceding Sec. or who
violates the provisions of the following Sec. or of any
order issued thereunder, or aids, permits, or causes such
violation shall, upon conviction thereof, be punished by
imprisonment for not less than six months or more than
six years and with the accessory penalty of perpetual
absolute disqualification from public office if the offender
be a public official at the time of the commission of the
offense, and, if the offender is an alien he shall be subject
to deportation proceedings chan robles virtua