Data Security Sample Bills: Protect Minors, Students, Health Care Data & More

In 2014 California passed a number of data security bills to protect students, consumers and patients, including:

• Privacy Rights for California Minors in the Digital World (California’s SB 568)

  •  Prohibits marketing or advertising alcohol, firearms and tobacco to minors

  • Prohibits using, disclosing, or compiling a minor’s personal information (or permitting a third party to do so).

  • Intended to exceed federal protections for minors.

• Data Breach Notification Amendments (California’s AB 1710):

  •  Business must “implement and maintain reasonable security procedures and practices appropriate to the nature of the information, to protect the personal information from unauthorized access, destruction, use, modification, or disclosure.” 

  • Any identity theft prevention services must be made at no cost to the affected person for not less than 1 year. 

• Medical Information Breach Notification Period (California’s AB 1755):
  • Expands the time permitted to report breaches or disclosures of patients’ medical information to the state & to the patient.  
  • Permits email notification.

• Safeguarding Pupil Digital Records ( California’s AB 1584):

  • Provide local educational agencies with control to contract with third parties that provide digital educational software or services, including cloud-based services, for the digital storage, management, and retrieval of pupil records. 

  • Limits the use of the pupil records, ensuring compliance with the federal Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act

• Pupil Records and Social Media (California’s AB 1442):

  • Restricts a school district, county education office, or charter school that gathers information from an enrolled pupil on social media from using information collected for other purposes.

  • Prohibits selling or sharing of information, and imposes other requirements related to the destruction of information. 

• Student Online Personal Information Protection Act (California’sSB 1177):

  • “Prohibits operators of websites and online services and applications used primarily for K–12 school purposes, and designed and marketed for those purposes, from pursuing targeted advertising to students and their parents or legal guardians.”

  • “Prohibits using covered information to build a profile of K–12 students, selling a student’s information, and disclosing certain types of information.”  

National Law Review