GeoCities to Clarify Privacy Policy After FTC Proceeding
Last week the Federal Trade Commission unanimously approved the tentative accord it reached last summer with GeoCities. The approval settles the first administrative proceeding by a federal agency against the popular site. The settlement prohibits the Santa Monica, CA, firm from misrepresenting the purposes for which it collects or uses personal identifying information from or about its subscribers, including children.
GeoCities is also prohibited from obtaining or disseminating personal information about children, particularly children under the age of 12, without parental consent, as required by the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act of 1998. And it must offer individuals about whom it has information a chance to have that information deleted from its files.
The FTC began its proceedings against GeoCities last year after alleging it collected personal information from its more than 2 million subscribers and provided the data to third party marketers. The company offers a “virtual community” on its Web site (http://www.geocities.com) which includes Official GeoCities GeoKidz Club and children’s contests in its Enchanted Forest neighborhood.
According to the FTC, GeoCities claimed that the information being collecting through membership applications would only be used to provide members with specific advertising offers and products or services they requested. Instead the information was “disclosed to third parties who used it to target members for solicitations beyond those agreed to.”
FTC Commissioner Orson Swindle said in a statement that while he voted for the settlement in this particular case, it “does not necessarily mean that I would support imposing these requirements on other commercial Internet sites through either legislation or regulation.”
GeoCities officials declined to comment on the settlement or its terms.
