As Zuckerberg Testifies – Daines Introduces Student Privacy Bill

Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg is testifying before Congress for the next two days, and Montana Senator Steve Daines has taken the opportunity to introduce a new bill to protect the privacy of students.

The bill is called The Safeguarding American Families from Exposure by Keeping Information and Data Secure (SAFE KIDS) Act.

“It takes control of our students’ data away from operators, and places it back where it should be, and that’s in the hands of parents and the students themselves,” said Daines on the Senate floor on Tuesday. “This is a timely and important bill. Our children’s’ information shouldn’t be used and abused, and I encourage and ask my colleagues to join me in support of the Safe Kids Act.”

The bill protects student privacy by establishing clear parameters for third-party operators when using data collected from students. The legislation empowers parents to control access to their children’s information.

Daines maintains that the current federal protections for student data, including the tools currently available to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), are inadequate.

He says The SAFE KIDS Act empowers the FTC to oversee and enforce collection, storage and usage of covered information.