Draft of President Obama's Student-Data-Privacy Bill Raises Questions
New federal student-data-privacy legislation being crafted by the White House would prohibit education technology vendors from selling student information and directing targeted advertisements at students, but the legislation remains silent on other controversial industry practices, according to documents obtained by Education Week.Since President Barack Obama announced earlier this month that he would seek a new federal "Student Digital Privacy Act," educators, advocates, and industry leaders have awaited crucial details that could reshape the responsibilities of both companies and schools when it comes to protecting students' privacy.
The White House has yet to release those details publicly.
But a draft of the proposed bill that has been circulated privately by Obama Administration officials offers key insights. It is unclear if the documents obtained by Education Week represent the most recent draft of the proposed legislation, or an early version that has since undergone revision.
The White House did not immediately return a request for comment.
The apparently rechristened "Student Digital Privacy and Innovation Act" seemingly aims to create a uniform national playing field by pre-empting the patchwork of state laws currently in place—a key concern of industry groups.
The draft bill would also assign responsibility for enforcing violations of students' privacy under the act to the Federal Trade Commission.
And while the draft federal proposal is broadly similar to recently enacted state legislation in California, which the president hailed as a model during a speech earlier this month, it also contains key differences.
Some of those differences are likely to be looked upon favorably by privacy advocates, but two significant differences between the draft bill and the Student Online Personal Information Protection Act, or SOPIPA, signed into law by California Gov. Jerry Brown in September, are likely to be viewed as industry-friendly.
Unlike the California law, the draft version of the proposed federal bill obtained by Education Weekdoes not contain an explicit prohibition on vendors amassing profiles of K-12 students for non-educational uses.
Nor does the draft federal bill follow California's approach of prohibiting vendors from collecting Draft of President Obama's Student-Data-Privacy Bill Raises Questions - Digital Education - Education Week: