Political Quotes

“I rise to introduce the Student Privacy Protection Act with my friend and colleague from Alabama, Senator Shelby. Senator Shelby recently asked me to join him as a co-chair of the Congressional Privacy Caucus and I am pleased that we are today introducing legislation to help protect the privacy of one of America's most vulnerable groups-- our students. A recent GAO report confirms that more and more, schools are being perceived by some not just as centers for learning, but as centers for commercial research. Our children should be instilled with knowledge, not mined for knowledge on their commercial preferences and interests. Schools are there to help children grow up to be good citizens--not to provide a captive audience for market researchers and major advertisers. Our bill is simple--it provides parents and their children with modest, appropriate, privacy protections from market research in schools that would gather personal information about students, during school hours, for purely commercial purposes. It does not ban advertising, nor does it ban market research. It simply requires that, before a researcher can start asking a young student to provide personal information, that researcher must obtain parental consent or its equivalent. Surely, that is not too much to ask.”