Delaware law to give students increased online privacy

Delaware has become the first state to pass a law banning public and private schools from requiring students to give administration access to social media accounts, Mashable reports. The bill forbids institutions from requesting students to provide passwords or account information, asking students to log onto a social media site in the presence of a government agent, requiring the installation of a monitoring device that gives the institution access, or requiring students to add an agent to their online contacts. The bill — which still needs the governor’s signature to be fully enacted — is a significant move in the long-standing fight for digital privacy, say its advocates.

“Since schools generally do not have a duty to monitor their students’ off campus activities in the real world, they shouldn’t have a duty to monitor their students’ off campus digital activities,” Bradley Shear — the attorney who helped draft the social media law…

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Study: Young adults do care about online privacy

Young adults should be informed about online privacy, experts say.
Young adults should be informed about online privacy, experts say.

All the dirty laundry younger people seem to air on social networks these days might lead older Americans to conclude that today’s tech-savvy generation doesn’t care about privacy.

Such an assumption fits happily with declarations that privacy is dead, as online marketers and social sites such as Facebook try to persuade people to share even more about who they are, what they are thinking, and where they are at any given time.

But it’s not quite true, a new study finds. Despite mounds of anecdotes about college students sharing booze-chugging party photos, posting raunchy messages, and badmouthing potential employers online, young adults generally care as much about privacy as older Americans.…Read More