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48 Hours of Student Privacy News

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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 …

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February Updates

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February Updates February 23, 2023 TLDR: February has been (unofficial) child privacy month. These issues were the focus of last week’s Senate Judiciary Committee hearing, received the “loudest ovation” during the State of the Union, and popped up during the recent House Education and Workforce Committee hearing. Here are this month’s highlights and our big takeaways: Senate Hearing: Protecting Our Children Online “Senators from both parties are once again taking aim at big tech companies, reigniting their efforts to protect children from “toxic content” online. At a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on Tuesday, they said they plan to “act swiftly” …

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January Updates

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January Updates February 1, 2023 Cross-posted from AASA Blog TLDR: Soon-to-be reintroduced federal parent rights bill may allow parents to opt out of most EdTech. Child privacy bills crafted without education input continue to risk banning school technology use – as was the case with the almost-passed COPPA 2.0 and Kids Online Safety Act in December. Just in case that wasn’t enough, President Biden published an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal, noting that “Congress can find common ground on the protection of privacy, competition and American children.” He called on Congress to pass legislation that would “hold Big Tech accountable” and to tighten pre-existing …

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This Week in Child & Student Privacy

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The Week in Child & Student Privacy April 27, 2022 This has been a big week for new legislation and regulations. Few news outlets have reported on the child or student privacy implications of these bills, so the newsletter is in a slightly different format this week. What I’m Reading Cross-posted from Public Interest Privacy Consulting LLC Blog 1. The California Age-Appropriate Design Code Act Passes Out of Committee The bill was passed out of committee with amendments and re-referred to the Assembly Appropriations Committee on the 25th, and read a second time and amended on the 26th. Some of …

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The Week in Child & Student Privacy

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The Week in Child & Student Privacy April 4, 2022 What I’m Reading Cross-posted from Public Interest Privacy Consulting LLC Blog 1. UK ICO Blog: Why protecting children online in UK living rooms starts 5,000 miles away What’s Happening What Happened: The new UK Information Commissioner says that since “[t]he digital world is borderless, and so many of the online services children access are based outside of the UK,” the value of the UK’s Age-Appropriate Design Code depends on how the Code is received internationally. He highlights California’s version of the Code, and mentions that versions of the Code are progressing …

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The Week in Child & Student Privacy

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The Week in Child & Student Privacy April 11, 2022 What I’m Reading Cross-posted from Public Interest Privacy Consulting LLC Blog 1. GovTech: Ed-Tech Companies Partner Up to Tackle Student Mental Health What’s Happening Two companies announced school partnerships to “tackle student mental health,” one of them by incorporating “information about a student’s social-emotional health and well-being into their college preparation, potentially helping schools give students more personalized attention in their post-graduation plans.” Why You Should Care This Government Technology article reads like a company press release, with no discussion of the massive privacy implications. Collecting student mental health information …

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This Week in Child & Student Privacy

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The Week in Child & Student Privacy April 1, 2022 What I’m Reading Cross-posted from Public Interest Privacy Consulting LLC Blog 1. Minnesota Pushing Bill That Says Websites Can No Longer Be Useful For Teenagers | Techdirt What’s Happening This bill “says that any social media platform with more than 1 million account holders (and operating in Minnesota) cannot use an algorithm to recommend content to users under the age of 18.” As the Chamber of Progress CEO points out, “YouTube Kids uses algorithms and manual curation to surface content appropriate for children and Twitter’s algorithms to help prioritize users find relevant …

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