Is your personal information secure on the website? Think again. Keeping your information safe is crucial as 64% Americans in some way or the other had their personal information exposed to data breach of any kind. Since there are unscrupulous people all over the internet looking to take advantage of your personal information, it is high time that your website follows some good practices to keep your data safe.
COPPA, the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act came into action in the year 1998 in the US with the aim to protect children’s privacy who shares their personal information on various digital platforms. So, if you are a website owner and your site collects personal information from children under the age of 13, who are residing in the USA, then your site needs to adhere to the laws of COPPA.
COPPA compliance is essential for any e-commerce website or application that is built using Magento or any other ecommerce platforms. The law applies to all those who owns a Magento website and offers content that is targeted to the children or offers general content that can be accessed are used by children under the age of 13.
Since personal information that is shared on websites may include anything like the name, phone number, address, IP address, audio, video, GPS location and etc., it is the duty of the website owner to keep the data secured. And for this you must be a COPPA compliant.
In order to secure the personal information that is shared by the users on your Magento Store, you must first post a privacy notice, which describes how you would handle the information that is collected by you and share information about any third party plugin or ad network. You should also list all the parties gathering the information, how it is collected, how it is used, what is collected and also a description of parental rights.
It is very important for the organization to provide a notice that includes the copy of the online privacy policy and it should also notify the parents about the rules and practices and take their consent before the child proceeds further. Some verifiable consent may include options like a phone call, a consent form, a mailed document, a series of questions or verification of the parent photo identity.
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It is only after the consent is given that your Magento website can gather the information and also allow the parents to continuously review the information that is shared. This helps to ensure that you are protecting the information with proper safeguards.
In order to make your website COPPA compliant, you have to make some additional changes to your Magento website, which may include account creation process, age verification, any parental control schemes based on the type of your business and the workflows. This can also vary significantly and should be updated from time to time to ensure that the site is legally compliant and the practices are implemented correctly.
You may have a Magento ecommerce website having its presence in various locations across the globe or you may have multisite in USA and for that it is important to be COPPA compliant. If you are a start-up business with very little knowledge about the legal matters and information security rules, then it is a good idea to hire a Magento development company having adequate experience in such compliance and regulations.
