The proposed Student Digital Privacy and Parental Rights Act to be introduced by Rep. Luke Messer (R-Indiana) and Rep. Jared Polis (D-Colorado) is ineffective and needs to be rewritten with the students’ interests in mind.
This bill puts corporate interests first and student privacy last. This isn’t a student privacy bill, it’s a license to divulge student data. Under this bill, parents will be unable to opt out of having their children’s data collected, and large, international corporations will have free reign to use the data how they see fit, even if that means disclosing it to unknown recipients without parental permission.
The so-called ‘protections’ in place are too vague and create loopholes that weaken privacy law further. We need to protect student privacy, and this bill doesn’t do that. It’s time to go back to the drawing board.
Emmett McGroarty is the executive director of APIA Education.
