Media Coverage
Source: Daily Journal
Media Coverage
01.13.15
As part of his proposal for national cybersecurity legislation this week, U.S. President Barack Obama called for laws banning third-party businesses that work with schools from marketing to students using data they’ve collected through those relationships. California in 2014 passed a similar privacy law behind the leadership of state attorney general Kamala Harris, which Obama lauded in his speech before the Federal Trade Commission and which security industry authorities say has turned a spotlight on student privacy issues.
“The work [Harris] has done tightening California and promoting the California data protection model, that’s gone a long way in raising the visibility of this issue to a national level,” said Global Security partner Catherine Meyer.
But there may also be concern that federal privacy laws wouldn’t be as strict as those in states that have taken a firm stance on the issue, according to Meyer.
“That’s been the problem with getting any data privacy legislation passed in Congress,” she said. “If they preempt to a weak-kneed standard of protection, the states with the stronger protections are going to go crazy.”