Education is changing. New technologies are allowing information to flow within schools and beyond, enabling new learning environments and providing new tools to improve the way teachers teach and the way students learn. Data-driven innovations are bringing advances in teaching and learning but are accompanied by concerns about how education data, particularly student-generated data, are being collected and used.
The Future of Privacy Forum believes that there are critical improvements to learning that are enabled by data and technology, and that the use of data and technology is not antithetical to protecting student privacy. In order to facilitate this balance, FPF equips and connects advocates, industry, policymakers, and practitioners with substantive practices, policies, and other solutions to address education privacy challenges at both the K-12 and higher ed levels.
For more information and resources, please visit Student Privacy Compass, a one-stop shop for information, news, and analysis on maintaining student data privacy.
What to Expect from the Review of Australia’s Privacy Act
The author thanks Anna Johnston and Alex Kotova (Salinger Privacy) for their review and comments and Gabriela Zanfir-Fortuna, Josh Lee Kok Thong, Lee Matheson, and Isabella Perera (FPF) for their support with editing this post. On February 16, 2023, Australia’s Attorney-General’s Department (AGD) released a final report (Review Report) on its multi-year review of Australia’s […]
Shining a Light on the Florida Digital Bill of Rights
On May 4, 2023, the Florida ‘Digital Bill of Rights’ (SB 262) cleared the state legislature and now heads to the desk of the Governor for signature. SB 262 bears many similarities to the Washington Privacy Act and its progeny (specifically the Texas Data Privacy and Security Act). However, SB 262 is unique given its […]
New Report Highlights LGBTQ+ Student Views on School Technology and Privacy
The Future of Privacy Forum and LGBT Tech outline recommendations for schools and districts to balance inclusion and student safety in technology use. Today, the Future of Privacy Forum (FPF), a global non-profit focused on privacy and data protection, and LGBT Tech, a national, nonpartisan group of LGBT organizations, academics, and high technology companies, released […]
Utah Considers Proposals to Require Web Services to Verify Users’ Ages, Obtain Parental Consent to Process Teens’ Data
Update: On March 23, Governor Spencer Cox signed SB 152 and HB 311. While amendments were made to both bills, the concerns raised in FPF’s analysis remain. SB 152 leaves critical provisions, such as methods to verify age or obtain parental consent, to be established in further rulemaking, but questions remain regarding whether these can […]
Five Big Questions (and Zero Predictions) for the U.S. State Privacy Landscape in 2023
Entering 2023, the United States remains one of the only global economic powers that lacks a comprehensive, national framework governing the collection and use of consumer data throughout the economy. Congress made unprecedented progress toward enacting baseline privacy legislation in 2022. However, the apparent impasse in the efforts to move H.R. 8152, the American Data […]
FPF Releases Comparative Analysis of California and U.K. Age-Appropriate Design Codes
The Future of Privacy Forum (FPF) today released a new policy brief comparing the California Age-Appropriate Design Code Act (AADC), a first-of-its-kind privacy-by-design law in the United States, and the United Kingdom’s Age-Appropriate Design Code. While there are distinctions between the two codes, the California AADC, which is set to become enforceable on July 1, […]
Federal Court deems university’s use of room scans within the home unconstitutional
I. Summary A federal court recently ruled that a public university’s use of room-scanning technology during a remotely proctored exam violated a student’s Fourth Amendment right to privacy. The decision in Ogletree v. CSU is the clearest indication to date of how courts will treat Fourth Amendment challenges to public higher education institutions’ use of […]
Meet David Sallay, FPF’s new Youth & Education Privacy Director
FPF is thrilled to announce the new Director of our Youth & Education Privacy Program, David Sallay. David comes to FPF from the Utah State Board of Education, where he previously served as the Chief Privacy Officer and the Student Privacy Auditor at the Utah State Board of Education, where he worked with schools and […]
FPF Releases Analysis of California’s New Age-Appropriate Design Code
FPF’s Youth & Education team is pleased to publish a new policy brief that builds on this first brief by providing a comparative analysis of the United Kingdom’s Age Appropriate Design Code (UK AADC) to the California AADC, which was modeled after the UK AADC. Learn more and download the UK and CA AADC Comparative policy brief here. […]
Age-Appropriate Design Code Passes California Legislature
Update: On Sep 15, 2022, California Governor Gavin Newsom signed AB 2273, the California Age-Appropriate Design Code Act. The law will apply to businesses that provide online services, products, or features likely to be accessed by children and broadly requires businesses to implement their strongest privacy settings by default for young users up to the age of […]