Question: Federal Law for Private Information on the web?

["Hart, Geoff" <Geoff-H -at- MTL -dot- FERIC -dot- CA>]

Paula Puffer wonders: <<I was doing some research on patient support web
sites and came across this statement: "Please select the month and year of
your birth. Federal law requires that Web sites ask for your date of birth
before collecting any personal information." 
Now this is the first time I have heard of this law... anyone here know
anything about it?>>

I know only the vaguest details, but I can say that a recent (last month or
two) issue of PC Magazine (www.pcmag.com) had an extensive special section
on online privacy, and one of the things they mentioned is that federal law
prohibits the collection and use of information on children younger than 12
or 13 without permission from their guardians. Frankly, I'm appalled that
the age limit is so low, but PCMag usually does their research, so I'd
assume this is correct.

--Geoff Hart, FERIC, Pointe-Claire, Quebec
geoff-h -at- mtl -dot- feric -dot- ca
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