Providers of education technology services are prohibited from selling student data and targeting advertisements to students, and are required to meet new regulations for data privacy, security and transparency, in a bill introduced this week by Reps. Polis (D-CO) and Messer (R-IN).
The Student Digital Privacy and Parental Rights Act also gives regulatory authority over these service providers to the Federal Trade Commission. Other provisions of the proposed legislation include:
- protection for student metadata
- correction and, upon request or by one year after service has ended, deletion of student information
- procedures for addressing data breaches
This bill, which pivots focus to the vendors themselves rather than the institutions and systems using their tools, seeks to update older legislation created before the proliferation of ed tech services. You can read more coverage of the proposal in Ed Week and Consumerist.
In addition to this bill, a discussion draft of an update to the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) has been circulated. ACTE is monitoring this and other legislation related to how student information can be safely used to help improve programs, foster student success and create connections across the education-workforce pipeline.
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