College students’ social media privacy is officially a bipartisan issue.
Oregon legislators passed a bill through the state’s Senate April 21 barring community colleges and universities from asking prospective students for their social media log-in information as part of a school’s application process.
The Oregon bill passed unanimously, and now goes to the House. Wisconsin lawmakers could follow suit, as legislators from both sides of the aisle advocate for a bill that would disallow employers, landlords, and universities from requesting social media log-in information from tenants or aspiring college athletes.
The Oregon legislation wouldn’t stop colleges and universities from examining social media information – tweets and Facebook posts, for example – made publicly available. The law would, however, put a stop to the practice of combing through an applicant’s social media information kept out of the public eye