This Week in Student Privacy: 7/28

Updating FERPA with the Student Privacy Protection Act

"The 'Student Privacy Protection Act' aims to expand the scope of student information that is protected by law, place new obligations on both educational institutions and third parties who handle that information, and ban the use of such information for direct advertising to students." (EdWeek) The bill "would represent a meaningful update to the Family Education Rights and Privacy Act." (EdWeek)

Read more at EdWeek: "Scaled-Back FERPA Overhaul Introduced in U.S. House" and Lexology: "House members introduce bipartisan education measures; ED seeks feedback on recognizing innovative programs"

Read the text of the bill through Data Quality Campaign.

Additional Articles/Resources

• The Hill: “Battle lines form with newest student data privacy bill”
• An “Ed-Tech Venture Capital Boom, and the K-12 Part of the Pie: It's Complicated” (EdWeek) and “VCs investing in more education technology startups” (St. Louis Business Journal)
• MIT Tech Review: “Educational Technology Faces a Pivotal Privacy Moment”
• Financial Times: “Students under Surveillance”
• The New York Times: “HIPAA’s Use as Code of Silence Often Misinterprets the Law”
• Daytona Beach News Journal on how FERPA is being applied outside of education data: “Eliminate misapplication of privacy law”
• Las Vegas Review-Journal: “Nevada’s new super-data system makes school records permanent”
• Inside Higher Ed: “7 Common mistakes About Open Online Education”
• Carnegie Mellon University Link: “Who’s peeking at your personal data?”
• MIT Tech Review: “A Closer Look at Online Learning”

This update was compiled by Jeremiah Milbauer, with help from Paulina Haduong. Jeremiah is a rising freshman at the University of Chicago and an intern for the Student Privacy Initiative.