News

Fixing FERPA: Adding Cybersecurity Requirements

Articles, Authored by PIPC Staff, Featured Resources, Legislative Analysis, New Resources, News, PIPC Resources / By /

Fixing FERPA: Adding Cybersecurity Requirements July 3, 2025 Jessica Arciniega, Morgan Sexton, and Amelia Vance   CC BY-NC 4.0 The Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) governs how schools handle everything from report cards to sensitive psychological evaluations. Yet this cornerstone of student privacy law was written in 1974—nearly three decades before most Americans had ever heard of the internet, and long before anyone imagined that a single cyberattack could expose the intimate details of millions of students’ lives. The result? A massive gap between the digital threats students face and the legal protections designed to shield them. Today, […]

Fixing FERPA: Adding Cybersecurity Requirements Read More »

Supreme Court Upholds Age Verification: A Game-Changer for Child Online Safety Laws

Articles, Authored by PIPC Staff, Featured News, Featured Resources, New Resources, News, PIPC Resources / By /

Supreme Court Upholds Age Verification: A Game-Changer for Child Online Safety Laws July 1, 2025 Jessica Arciniega, Morgan Sexton, & Amelia Vance   CC BY-NC 4.0 Introduction Last Friday, the U.S. Supreme Court issued a major decision in Free Speech Coalition v. Paxton, upholding Texas’s law requiring adult websites to verify users’ ages before allowing access. While this case specifically addressed pornographic content, the ruling’s implications likely extend far beyond adult websites—potentially reshaping how courts evaluate the dozens of state laws designed to protect children online that have repeatedly been blocked by federal judges over the past several years. TLDR:

Supreme Court Upholds Age Verification: A Game-Changer for Child Online Safety Laws Read More »

FERPA Priorities in the New Administration

Articles, Authored by PIPC Staff, Featured Resources, Legislative Analysis, New Resources, News, PIPC Resources / By /

FERPA Priorities in the New Administration May 7, 2025 Amelia Vance and Morgan Sexton   CC BY-NC 4.0 TLDR: Within the first month of the new Secretary of Education being confirmed, the U.S. Department of Education (USED) announced FERPA enforcement priorities. This reflects an unprecedented focus by a new presidential administration on student privacy. The priorities flagged by USED include: Parental Right to Inspect and Review Education Records;  Safety of Students;  Annual Notification of Rights; and  Military Recruiters. USED also asked State Education Agencies (SEAs) to submit documentation on their and their LEAs FERPA compliance. USED’s focus on FERPA compliance

FERPA Priorities in the New Administration Read More »

Comparing KOSA AINS with KOSPA

Featured News, Featured Resources, Legislative Analysis, News, PIPC Resources / By /

Comparing the House’s KOSA with Senate’s KOSPA On 7/30/24, the Senate passed the Kids Online Safety and Privacy Act (KOSPA), which incorporates two major student and child privacy bills–the Kids Online Safety Act (KOSA) and the Children and Teen’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA 2.0)–into the Eliminate Useless Reports Act of 2024. On 9/17/24, the House posted an amendment in the nature of a substitute from Representative Bilirakis to their previously introduced version of the Kids Online Safety Act (KOSA). Below is our redline comparing KOSPA as it passed the Senate to the House version of KOSA (as updated in the

Comparing KOSA AINS with KOSPA Read More »

Comparing COPPA 2.0 AINS with KOSPA

Featured News, Featured Resources, Legislative Analysis, News, PIPC Resources / By /

Comparing the House’s COPPA 2.0 AINS with the Senate’s KOSPA The Children and Teens Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA 2.0) and the Kids Online Safety Act (KOSA) will be included in a Wednesday (9/18) markup by the full House Commerce Committee. An amendment in the nature of a substitute (AINS) were shared publicly this morning (9/17) for both bills. Below is our redline comparing the Kids Online Safety and Privacy Act (KOSPA) as it passed the Senate to the House version of COPPA 2.0 (as updated in the AINS on 9/17). A similar redline for KOSA is forthcoming. Children and

Comparing COPPA 2.0 AINS with KOSPA Read More »

Comparing Senate KOSPA with House KOSA/COPPA 2.0

Featured News, Featured Resources, Legislative Analysis, News, PIPC Resources / By /

Comparing Senate KOSPA with House KOSA/COPPA 2.0 On 7/30/24, the Senate passed the Kids Online Safety and Privacy Act (KOSPA), which incorporates two major student and child privacy bills–the Kids Online Safety Act (KOSA) and the Children and Teen’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA 2.0)–into the Eliminate Useless Reports Act of 2024. Below is our redline comparing KOSPA as it passed the Senate to the House versions of KOSA (as updated in the Amendment in the Nature of a Substitute for KOSA on 6/27) and COPPA 2.0 (as introduced in the House). Table of Contents Add a header to begin generating

Comparing Senate KOSPA with House KOSA/COPPA 2.0 Read More »

Tis the Season for Rulemaking: FTC Announces New COPPA NPRM

Blogs, Legislative Analysis, News, Newsletter, PIPC Resources / By /

Tis the Season for Rulemaking: FTC Announces New COPPA NPRM December 20, 2023 Katherine Kalpos, Morgan Sexton, and Amelia Vance       CC BY-NC 4.0 Hello all, While we might have thought child and student privacy work for the year was winding down, the FTC had other ideas. Today the FTC released a notice of proposed rulemaking (NPRM) for the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Rule (COPPA Rule) that would mean big changes for companies and schools, codifying some of the changes stakeholders have been advocating for. We’ll be going through the NPRM in detail over the next few days.

Tis the Season for Rulemaking: FTC Announces New COPPA NPRM Read More »

What New Amendment to the Kids Online Safety Act May Mean for Integrated Data Systems

Blogs, Legislative Analysis, News, Newsletter, PIPC Resources / By /

What New Amendment to the Kids Online Safety Act May Mean for Integrated Data Systems September 2023 Katherine Kalpos, Morgan Sexton, and Amelia Vance       CC BY-NC 4.0 A new amendment to the Kids Online Safety Act (KOSA) isn’t just about kids.  On July 27th, the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation passed KOSA as amended out of committee. While KOSA is designed to protect kids online, one of its new amendments – the Filter Bubble Transparency Act (aka Thune 2), hereafter referred to as “the amendment” – regulates platforms providing content to users of all ages. And notably for governmental integrated data system

What New Amendment to the Kids Online Safety Act May Mean for Integrated Data Systems Read More »

48 Hours of Student Privacy News

News, Newsletter, PIPC Resources / By /

48 Hours of Student Privacy News May 24, 2023 In the past two days, the child and student privacy landscape has been overwhelmed with an influx of news and announcements. The biggest? The FTC’s new settlement with edtech company Edmodo might break school technology use in a few different ways, including shifts on which education entities edtech vendors can contract with and what rights parents have to modify or delete their children’s education data. While that would certainly be enough to hold our attention, we also saw: A major conservative think tank stating publicly that they believe that the pending

48 Hours of Student Privacy News Read More »

Child Privacy Expert Warns Policymakers Must Enact Meaningful Federal Privacy Laws to Ensure Students’ Online Safety, Protect Against Dire Consequences

In the News, Legislative Analysis, News, PIPC Resources, Press Releases / By /

Press Release Child Privacy Expert Warns Policymakers Must Enact Meaningful Federal Privacy Laws to Ensure Students’ Online Safety, Protect Against Dire Consequences April 17, 2023 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE WASHINGTON, D.C. – Public Interest Privacy Center Founder and President Amelia Vance today offered testimony before the House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Innovation, Data, and Commerce during a hearing entitled, “Addressing America’s Data Privacy Shortfalls: How a National Standard Fills Gaps to Protect Americans’ Personal Information.” During the hearing, Vance urged policymakers to take action by enacting comprehensive federal privacy law that include appropriate protections for children and students who are

Child Privacy Expert Warns Policymakers Must Enact Meaningful Federal Privacy Laws to Ensure Students’ Online Safety, Protect Against Dire Consequences Read More »