The message:
Students who bring home a school-loaned computer have no statutory privacy protections and are left to internal district policies to set any privacy standards.
What does this mean in practice? According to a 2020 report we issued, in two-thirds of Rhode Island school districts a school official could turn on and access a student’s school-loaned computer camera or microphone, at any time and for any reason.
This is unfortunately not hypothetical – there is even a court case of a Pennsylvania school official who took photos of a student sleeping in his bedroom. This lack of privacy protections leaves students and their families vulnerable to major intrusions of privacy at home.
Similarly, this legislation also prohibits school districts from accessing the location data of the devices, except for a few narrow exceptions, like if the device has been reported stolen or lost.
Contact your legislators in support of this bill by filling out the form!
