Related: Kids Advocates Say FTC Isn't Enforcing COPPA 

That came in a letter from the Institute for Public Representation at Georgetown Law for the Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood (CCFC) and the Center for Digital Democracy (CDD). 

“With schools closed across the country, American families are more dependent than ever on digital media to educate and occupy their children,” said CCFC’s executive director Josh Golin. “It’s now urgent that the FTC use its full authority to shed light on the business models of the edtech and children’s digital media industries so we can understand what Big Tech knows about our children and what they are doing with that information. The stakes have never been higher.” 

The companies whose "array of opaque" data collection and marketing practices they want disclosed are Google, Disney, Zoom, Comcast, Viacom and edtech firms Edmodo and Prodigy. 

The EU in May adopted a tough new opt-in based online privacy regime, while California recently adopted its own tough privacy legislation.

The Republican majority in the committee has issues with the GDPR approach and with the California law, since the FCC's rollback of net neutrality rules included pre-empting such state efforts at re-regulation, there is general agreement on both sides of the aisle that Congress needs to step in with some kind of online privacy protection given the series of hacks and improper data sharing and vulnerabilities that has Washington on edge about The Edge.

That included the revelation this week about Google+.

Privacy group, the Center for Digital Democracy sent a letter to the committee in advance of the hearing outlining what it thought should be Congress' approach to comprehensive legislation. 

CDD wants broad protections in baseline legislation. That includes covering all data, online and off, and all parties, including nonprofits. But CDD does not want the federal law to preempt tougher state laws.

That is likely a nonstarter for computer companies and ISPs who argue that a "patchwork" of state laws is unworkable, and federal law must supersede such efforts, which is one of the reasons they support federal privacy legislation.

CDD also wants to give rulemaking authority to the Federal Trade Commission so its enforcement of tough new privacy laws have some teeth. Currently, the FTC can enforce unfair and deceptive conduct by filing suit and securing consent decrees.

"Today’s commercial practices have grown over the past decades unencumbered by regulatory constraints, and increasingly threaten the American ideals of self-determination, fairness, justice and equal opportunity," CDD told the committee. "It is now time to address these developments: to grant basic rights to individuals and groups regarding data about them and how those data are used; to put limits on certain commercial data practices; and to strengthen our government to step in and protect our individual and common interests vis-à-vis powerful commercial entities."

CDD is looking for annual reports to the FTC from various safe harbor programs under the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act.

The FTC's COPPA Rule (enforcing the COPPA law) requires operators of Web sites and online services directed to children under 13 to "provide notice and obtain permission from a child’s parents before collecting personal information from that child." The safe harbor allows industry  to develop its own COPPA oversight programs, known as 'safe harbor, programs that the FTC vets. If the FTC approves, participating in the program is presumed to be compliance with COPPA restrictions on that personal information collection.

CDD has long questioned the effectiveness of the voluntary industry safe harbor programs. "The commission cannot look the other way on this issue, even if some of the Safe Harbor companies prefer to operate in a non-transparent manner," CDD said earlier this month. 

CDD made the request July 2, which FTC signaled on July 8 it had received and was processing, according to CDD. On July 25, CDD said the FTC responded that it would not be ale to meet the statutory 20-business day" deadline for responding to the request and that it was extending the deadline due to "unusual circumstances."

Whatever those were, CDD now says it has yet to hear back from the FTC. CDD says that is a violation of the statutory time limit for processing FOIA requests and wants the court to force the FTC to produce the requested records, disclose them with all fees waived, pay CDD's attorneys fees, and any other remedy the court thinks appropriate.

FTC spokesperson Cheryl Warner had no comment on the complaint.

CDD says iKeepSafe fails to provide the same or greater protections as the COPPA rule, using permissive language--"should"--rather than mandatory language--"must," "required." It also says the proposal does not clearly define child-directed sites.

CDD also takes issue with ikeepSafe's plan to have a third party, PlayWell, assess compliance with the voluntary guidelines, saying it has provided no evidence that either it or PlayWell has the skill or technical expertise, and in PlayWell’s case the staff, to enforce the safe harbor.

The COPPA Rule allows companies that want to be considered de facto in compliance to do so through a safe harbor program that monitors that compliance.

"[T]he FTC should reject iKeepSafe’s application, or require amendments and clarifying submissions from the company," said CDD, which is a leading voice for protecting kids privacy online," CDD told the FTC.

“FTC should not approve safe harbor applications unless it is absolutely clear that the proposed safe harbor will provide equal or better protection of children’s information than the COPPA Rule, and this proposed system would fall far short of the standard,” said CDD legal director Hudson Kingston in a statement. "Unless the existing and new safe harbors are held to an exacting standard the law will be undercut by incompetent enforcement—as the agency responsible for COPPA, FTC mustn’t allow self regulation to work against its intended purpose.”

We appreciate CDD's interest in our application and in all organizations involved in the safe harbor process,” said PlayWell President Linnette Attai. “We take our responsibilities in this space quite seriously, and are strongly-positioned to implement a robust and rigorous COPPA Safe Harbor program.”

“Our application lays out both guiding principles that helped to inform the development of the guidelines, and strong, detailed ‘must do’ requirements for companies that wish to obtain the proposed iKeepSafe COPPA Safe Harbor seal. The requirements meet or exceed the threshold of COPPA requirements, and we are happy to discuss any concerns suggesting otherwise in great detail with any interested parties. The technical assessment plan as described in the application is aligned with what the FTC uses for its own assessments, and matches or exceeds that of some existing safe harbor programs.

“Many safe harbor organizations are small in staff, but that does not detract from their ability to sustain thriving, compliant programs.“

Attai said that she and Marsali Hancock, president of iKeepSafe, would oversee the safe harbor with the help of iKeepSafe staff and “other resources.”

She pointed out that she had worked for 14 years helping companies comply with COPPA and other privacy self-regs. “Ms. Hancock has led iKeepSafe for the past decade, building it into a valuable resource for government, education and industry.

She has partnered with the FTC, the White House and international organizations on development of robust privacy and safety programs around children's use of technology, which is core to iKeepSafe’s mission.”