ALEC's student privacy bill and the hydra-headed data predators
As recently reported in Education Week , the American Legislative Exchange Council (or ALEC), the conservative advocacy group, is jumping on the student privacy bandwagon and has written a “model” bill for state legislators to adopt, based on an Oklahoma privacy bill that was recently passed. Even at first glance, I realized this bill was inadequate because it doesn’t provide for any parental consent before children’s personal data is handed over to vendors, and noted this to the EdWeek reporter:
Leonie Haimson, a New York City-based parent and public schools advocate, also questioned the wisdom of not providing families more say in whether and how their children’s information is being shared.
“To me, it sounds like [the bill is intended] to assuage the fears of parents who want there to be something done to protect their children’s data, but who aren’t really informed about the issues,” Ms. Haimson said.
Bills that contain more specifics but don’t take as comprehensive an approach have gained some traction in other states. In New York, for example, Ms. Haimson and her nonprofit organization, Class Size Matters, have helped push more-targeted bills crafted to stop the release of sensitive student information without parental consent
