ICO Age Appropriate Design Code of Conduct: tread lightly

Reacting to the ICO Code of Conduct  Matthew Rice, Open Rights Group said:

“It is welcome to see the ICO lay out strong “high privacy” by default including switching off geolocation, services the rely on profiling, and restricting nudge techniques, among others. This gives the opportunity for children to access and use online services without becoming tracked and having their personal data monetised as soon as they land on the site.

“However the ICO must tread lightly when it comes to requesting verification of a child’s age. There is a risk that an interpretation of the code will increase the spread of age verification technologies which, if implemented badly, could increase data collection of children or lead to inadvertently restricting access to services for children that don’t have identity documents or sufficient parental support. The ICO must place strong restrictions to minimise the use of data collected, and give children the opportunity to enjoy the freedom to access to information and the communication potential that the best of these services provide.” 

More information

Contact +442070961079 press@openrightsgroup.org

Notes

The ICO Code is available at: https://ico.org.uk/about-the-ico/ico-and-stakeholder-consultations/age-appropriate-design-a-code-of-practice-for-online-services/ 

The consultation ends on 31 May 2019