Subj: Online Privacy: Perspectives of Association of American Publishers From: Allan Adler, Vice President for Legal & Government Affairs, Association of American Publishers, 202/220-4544, adler@publishers.org To: Internet Caucus Advisory Committee PRIVACY AND ONLINE EDUCATIONAL PROGRAMS May 22, 2000 The Association of American Publishers ("AAP") is aware of the threats to individual privacy that may be posed by Internet technology and the information collection and use practices of some website operators, especially when the individuals involved are children. For that reason, AAP supports the basic intent underlying legislation such as the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act ("COPPA") to prevent the exploitation of children through the unauthorized online collection of their personal information. However, AAP and its members - which include many of the nation's leading educational publishers - are concerned that overreaching privacy protections can unduly restrict children's access to valuable online educational resources. This would be both tragic and ironic, given the growing importance of the Internet as an educational medium and the huge investments to promote technology in education that are currently being made both by government and by a variety of non-profit and commercial enterprises. Unless issues of online education are considered at the inception of any legislative or regulatory process to develop online privacy protections, user access to a wide range of such programs may be subject to unnecessary restrictions that will stifle the growth of "distance education" and other online educational opportunities to the detriment of individual students and society as a whole. Educational websites and online services, whether operated by nonprofit or commercial entities, or by joint ventures among them, offer a wealth of quality resources and activities that can support and enhance classroom instruction. With use of the Internet as an educational medium continuing to grow, AAP envisions extensive expansion of online educational program offerings that will not only allow children to read or download information but will also allow them to engage in a range of interactive tasks, such as review exercises, learning games, homework activities and tests. These programs may relate directly to a child's work in school, or they may be supplemental, for independent study and enrichment. The inherent interactivity of these online educational programs will often require that participants identify themselves and provide responsive information, such as solutions to problems or answers to questions. Some online educational programs may involve recording and reporting grades and test results to teachers and school officials, as in instances where assessments and evaluations that in the past were administered using paper and pencil in a classroom are now or in the future administered online. In many instances, these responses and data may entail the disclosure of information that is personally- identifiable to the individual, and thus fall within the scope of privacy concerns, even if that information is not sold or used for advertising or selling. Although "opt-in" requirements, such as for "verifiable parental consent" under COPPA, may be deemed necessary and appropriate to protect privacy interests in certain online contexts, the imposition of such prerequisites for participation in online educational activities can discourage children's spontaneous participation in such programs, whether at school (during or after normal classroom hours) or in a library or at home. Clearly, such a requirement can greatly complicate even the planned use of online educational programs in schools, where the failure of even a single child to obtain parental consent could compromise or even preclude the use of an online program as a classroom or school-wide activity. Such requirements can, as a practical matter, aggravate existing "digital divide" circumstances and entirely prevent many children from accessing online educational programs. This would be especially unfortunate in cases where the financial and technological resources needed to access such online programs are not universally available; indeed, for large portions of our nation's population, a child's only feasible access to computers and the Internet is in a classroom, library or other institutional environment. Unless these proliferating online educational resources are otherwise made available to children who do not have a computer and Internet access at home and/or whose parents (for whatever reason) cannot or will not respond to "opt-in" requests, a large portion of our nation's children will be cut off from developing essential computer skills and accessing the same educational resources and opportunities that are available to their more advantaged peers. AAP and its members recognize that privacy protection is important in the educational context, as it is elsewhere. But the legislative process that resulted in COPPA's enactment did not afford much consideration to the potentially adverse impact that COPPA's "opt- in" requirement could have on children's access to online educational programs. If Congress embarks on further efforts to protect online privacy, AAP hopes that it will carefully explore the implications of its actions for online educational programs. As the principal national trade association of the U.S. book publishing industry, AAP represents more than 260 member companies and organizations that include most of the major commercial book publishers in the United States, as well as many small and non-profit publishers, university presses and scholarly societies, who publish hardcover and paperback print books in every field. Many AAP members also operate online websites and publish computer programs, databases, and other electronic materials for use in a variety of digital formats.