Nationwide: Password Protection Acts
Category: Free Speech
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Oregon Enacts New Password Protection Act, Joins Seven Other States Demonstrating Commitment to Internet Privacy
June 24, 2013
On June 13, Oregon became the eighth state—along with Arkansas, California, Delaware, Michigan, New Jersey, New Mexico, and Utah—to make an effort to enhance Internet privacy by passing a new password protection act. The act prevents colleges and universities from requiring students or prospective students to provide schools with access to their personal email or social media accounts. The bill, S.B. 344, sponsored by Senate President Pro Tempore Ginny Burdick, Senator Tim Knopp, Senator Bruce Starr, and Senator Elizabeth Steiner Hayward, and signed by Governor John Kitzhaber, states: SECTION 1. (1) A public or private educational institution may not: (a) […]
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Utah Adopts New Internet Privacy Law; Similar Bill Awaits Signature of Arkansas Governor
April 12, 2013
On March 26, Utah became the fifth state—joining Delaware, California, Michigan, and New Jersey—to adopt an Internet privacy bill (sometimes referred to as a password protection act) prohibiting colleges and universities from demanding access to students’ or prospective students’ private email or social media accounts. The bill, H.B. 100, signed by Governor Gary Herbert, reads in relevant part: A postsecondary institution may not do any of the following: (1) request a student or prospective student to disclose a username and password, or a password that allows access to the student’s or prospective student’s personal Internet account; or (2) expel, discipline, […]
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Federal Court: Demanding Facebook Password of Student and Punishing Her for “Naughty” Messages Implicates First, Fourth Amendments
September 19, 2012
Last week, Techdirt highlighted an excellent, speech-friendly decision from the United States District Court for the District of Minnesota. The Wall Street Journal Law Blog has also picked up on the decision by Chief Judge Michael J. Davis, which can be found here. The court’s opinion is worth a read, and it lays out a very troubling set of facts: Student posts online, gets punished by school, school demands access to student’s social media account. The case involves a 12-year-old Minnesota student, “R.S.”, in the Minnewaska Area School District. In 2011, R.S. posted on Facebook about how she hated a […]
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