Bill Text: CA AB801 | 2023-2024 | Regular Session | Introduced

California Assembly Bill 801

NOTE: There are more recent revisions of this legislation. Read Latest Draft

Bill Title: Student privacy: online personal information.

Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Republican 1-0)

Status: (Engrossed) 2024-06-17 - Ordered to third reading. [AB801 Detail]

Download: California-2023-AB801-Introduced.html

CALIFORNIA LEGISLATURE— 2023–2024 REGULAR SESSION

Assembly Bill

No. 801

Introduced by Assembly Member Joe Patterson

February 13, 2023

An act to amend Sections 22584 and 22586 of the Business and Professions Code, relating to privacy.

LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST

AB 801, as introduced, Joe Patterson. Student privacy: online personal information.

Existing law, the Early Learning Personal Information Protection Act and the Student Online Personal Information Protection Act, prohibit the operator of specified internet websites, online services, online applications, or mobile applications from knowingly engaging in targeted advertising to amass a profile about a preschool, prekindergarten, or K–12 student, selling a student’s information, or disclosing covered information, as defined, except as otherwise provided. Existing law requires an operator to take specified other actions relating to the protection of a student or parent’s covered information, including implementing and maintaining reasonable security procedures and practices, and deleting a student’s covered information if the school or district requests deletion of data under the control of the school or district.

This bill would require an operator to delete a preschool, prekindergarten, or K–12 student’s covered information if the student, or the student’s parent or legal guardian, requests an operator to delete the covered information under the operator’s control if the student is no longer attending the school or district, and would authorize an operator to require documentation that the student no longer attends the school or district.

Vote: MAJORITY Appropriation: NO Fiscal Committee: NO Local Program: NO

The people of the State of California do enact as follows:

SECTION 1.

Section 22584 of the Business and Professions Code is amended to read:

22584.

(a) For the purposes of this section, “operator” means the operator of an ~~Internet Web site,~~ internet website, online service, online application, or mobile application with actual knowledge that the site, service, or application is used primarily for K–12 school purposes and was designed and marketed for K–12 school purposes.

(b) An operator shall not knowingly engage in any of the following activities with respect to their site, service, or application:

(1) (A) Engage in targeted advertising on the operator’s site, service, or application, or (B) target advertising on any other site, service, or application when the targeting of the advertising is based upon any information, including covered information and persistent unique identifiers, that the operator has acquired because of the use of that operator’s site, service, or application described in subdivision (a).

(2) Use information, including persistent unique identifiers, created or gathered by the operator’s site, service, or application, to amass a profile about a K–12 ~~student~~ student, except in furtherance of K–12 school purposes.

(3) Sell a student’s information, including covered information. This prohibition does not apply to the purchase, merger, or other type of acquisition of an operator by another entity, provided that the operator or successor entity continues to be subject to the provisions of this section with respect to previously acquired student information.

(4) Disclose covered information unless the disclosure is made:

(A) In furtherance of the K–12 purpose of the site, service, or application, provided the recipient of the covered information disclosed pursuant to this subparagraph:

(i) Shall not further disclose the information unless done to allow or improve operability and functionality within that student’s classroom or school; and

(ii) Is legally required to comply with subdivision (d);

(B) To ensure legal and regulatory compliance;

(D) To protect the safety of users or others or security of the site; or

(E) To a service provider, provided the operator contractually (i) prohibits the service provider from using any covered information for any purpose other than providing the contracted service to, or on behalf of, the operator, (ii) prohibits the service provider from disclosing any covered information provided by the operator with subsequent third parties, and (iii) requires the service provider to implement and maintain reasonable security procedures and practices as provided in subdivision (d).

(c) ~~Nothing in subdivision (b) shall be construed to prohibit~~ Subdivision (b) does not prohibit the operator’s use of information for maintaining, developing, supporting, improving, or diagnosing the operator’s site, service, or application.

(d) An operator shall:

(1) Implement and maintain reasonable security procedures and practices appropriate to the nature of the covered information, and protect that information from unauthorized access, destruction, use, modification, or disclosure.

(2) Delete a student’s covered information if the school or district requests deletion of data under the control of the school or district.

(3) Delete a student’s covered information if the student, or the student’s parent or legal guardian, requests an operator to delete the covered information under the operator’s control if the student is no longer attending the school or district. The operator may require documentation that the student no longer attends the school or district.

(e) Notwithstanding paragraph (4) of subdivision (b), an operator may disclose covered information of a student, as long as paragraphs (1) to (3), inclusive, of subdivision (b) are not violated, under the following circumstances:

(1) If other provisions of federal or state law require the operator to disclose the information, and the operator complies with the requirements of federal and state law in protecting and disclosing that information.

(2) For legitimate research purposes: (A) as required by state or federal law and subject to the restrictions under applicable state and federal law or (B) as allowed by state or federal law and under the direction of a school, school district, or state department of education, if no covered information is used for any purpose in furtherance of advertising or to amass a profile on the student for purposes other than K–12 school purposes.

(3) To a state or local educational agency, including schools and school districts, for K–12 school purposes, as permitted by state or federal law.

(f) ~~Nothing in this section prohibits~~ This section does not prohibit an operator from using deidentified student covered information as follows:

(1) Within the operator’s site, service, or application or other sites, services, or applications owned by the operator to improve educational products.

(2) To demonstrate the effectiveness of the operator’s products or services, including in their marketing.

(g) ~~Nothing in this section prohibits~~ This section does not prohibit an operator from sharing aggregated deidentified student covered information for the development and improvement of educational sites, services, or applications.

(h) “Online service” includes cloud computing services, which must comply with this section if they otherwise meet the definition of an operator.

(i) “Covered information” means personally identifiable information or materials, in any media or format that meets any of the following:

(1) Is created or provided by a student, or the student’s parent or legal guardian, to an operator in the course of the student’s, parent’s, or legal guardian’s use of the operator’s site, service, or application for K–12 school purposes.

(2) Is created or provided by an employee or agent of the K–12 school, school district, local education agency, or county office of education, to an operator.

(3) Is gathered by an operator through the operation of a site, service, or application described in subdivision (a) and is descriptive of a student or otherwise identifies a student, including, but not limited to, information in the student’s educational record or email, first and last name, home address, telephone number, email address, or other information that allows physical or online contact, discipline records, test results, special education data, juvenile dependency records, grades, evaluations, criminal records, medical records, health records, social security number, biometric information, disabilities, socioeconomic information, food purchases, political affiliations, religious information, text messages, documents, student identifiers, search activity, photos, voice recordings, or geolocation information.

(j) “K–12 school purposes” means purposes that customarily take place at the direction of the K–12 school, teacher, or school district or aid in the administration of school activities, including, but not limited to, instruction in the classroom or at home, administrative activities, and collaboration between students, school personnel, or parents, or are for the use and benefit of the school.

(k) This section ~~shall not be construed to~~ does not limit the authority of a law enforcement agency to obtain any content or information from an operator as authorized by law or pursuant to an order of a court of competent jurisdiction.

(l) This section does not limit the ability of an operator to use student data, including covered information, for adaptive learning or customized student learning purposes.

(m) This section does not apply to general audience ~~Internet Web sites,~~ internet websites, general audience online services, general audience online applications, or general audience mobile applications, even if login credentials created for an operator’s site, service, or application may be used to access those general audience sites, services, or applications.

(n) This section does not limit ~~Internet~~ internet service providers from providing ~~Internet~~ internet connectivity to schools or students and their families.

(o) This section ~~shall not be construed to~~ does not prohibit an operator of an ~~Internet Web site,~~ internet website, online service, online application, or mobile application from marketing educational products directly to parents so long as the marketing did not result from the use of covered information obtained by the operator through the provision of services covered under this section.

(p) This section does not impose a duty upon a provider of an electronic store, gateway, marketplace, or other means of purchasing or downloading software or applications to review or enforce compliance of this section on those applications or software.

(q) This section does not impose a duty upon a provider of an interactive computer service, as defined in Section 230 of Title 47 of the United States Code, to review or enforce compliance with this section by third-party content providers.

(r) This section does not impede the ability of students to download, export, or otherwise save or maintain their own student created data or documents.

SEC. 2.

Section 22586 of the Business and Professions Code is amended to read:

22586.

(a) For purposes of this section:

(1) “Operator” means the operator of an ~~Internet Web site,~~ internet website, online service, online application, or mobile application with actual knowledge that the site, service, or application is used primarily for preschool or prekindergarten purposes and was designed and marketed for preschool and prekindergarten purposes.

(2) “Pupil” means a child enrolled in a preschool or prekindergarten course of instruction.

(b) An operator shall not knowingly engage in any of the following activities with respect to their site, service, or application:

(1) (A) Engage in targeted advertising on the operator’s site, service, or application.

(B) Target advertising on any other site, service, or application when the targeting of the advertising is based upon any information, including covered information and persistent unique identifiers, that the operator has acquired because of the use of that operator’s site, service, or application described in subdivision (a).

(2) Use information, including persistent unique identifiers, created or gathered by the operator’s site, service, or application, to amass a profile about a ~~pupil~~ pupil, except in furtherance of preschool or prekindergarten purposes.

(3) Sell a pupil’s information, including covered information. This prohibition does not apply to the purchase, merger, or other type of acquisition of an operator by another entity, provided that the operator or successor entity continues to be subject to the provisions of this section with respect to previously acquired pupil information.

(4) Disclose covered information unless the disclosure is made:

(A) In furtherance of the preschool and prekindergarten purposes of the site, service, or application, provided that the recipient of the covered information disclosed pursuant to this subparagraph:

(i) Shall not further disclose the information unless done to allow or improve operability and functionality within that pupil’s classroom, preschool, or prekindergarten.

(ii) Is legally required to comply with subdivision (d);

(B) To ensure legal and regulatory compliance;

(D) To protect the safety of users or others or security of the site; or

(d) An operator shall:

(2) Delete a pupil’s covered information if the preschool, prekindergarten, or district requests deletion of data under the control of the preschool, prekindergarten, or district.

(3) Delete a pupil’s covered information if the pupil, or the pupil’s parent or legal guardian, requests an operator to delete the covered information under the operator’s control if the pupil is no longer attending the preschool, prekindergarten, or district. The operator may require documentation that the pupil no longer attends the preschool, prekindergarten, or district.

(e) Notwithstanding paragraph (4) of subdivision (b), an operator may disclose covered information of a pupil, as long as paragraphs (1) to (3), inclusive, of subdivision (b) are not violated, under the following circumstances:

(2) For legitimate research purposes: (A) as required by state or federal law and subject to the restrictions under applicable state and federal law or (B) as allowed by state or federal law and under the direction of a preschool, prekindergarten, school district, or state department of education, if no covered information is used for any purpose in furtherance of advertising or to amass a profile on the pupil for purposes other than preschool and prekindergarten purposes.

(3) To a state or local educational agency, including preschools, prekindergartens, and school districts, for preschool and prekindergarten purposes, as permitted by state or federal law.

(f) ~~Nothing in this section prohibits~~ This section does not prohibit an operator from using deidentified pupil covered information as follows:

(1) Within the operator’s site, service, or application or other sites, services, or applications owned by the operator to improve educational products.

(2) To demonstrate the effectiveness of the operator’s products or services, including in their marketing.

(g) ~~Nothing in this section prohibits~~ This section does not prohibit an operator from sharing aggregated deidentified pupil covered information for the development and improvement of educational sites, services, or applications.

(h) “Online service” includes cloud computing services, which must comply with this section if they otherwise meet the definition of an operator.

(i) “Covered information” means personally identifiable information or materials, in any media or format that meets any of the following:

(1) Is created or provided by a pupil, or the pupil’s parent or legal guardian, to an operator in the course of the pupil’s, parent’s, or legal guardian’s use of the operator’s site, service, or application for preschool and prekindergarten purposes.

(2) Is created or provided by an employee or agent of the preschool, prekindergarten, school district, local educational agency, or county office of education, to an operator.

(3) Is gathered by an operator through the operation of a site, service, or application described in subdivision (a), and is descriptive of a pupil or otherwise identifies a pupil, including, but not limited to, information in the pupil’s educational record or email, first and last name, home address, telephone number, email address, or other information that allows physical or online contact, discipline records, test results, special education data, juvenile dependency records, grades, evaluations, criminal records, medical records, health records, social security number, biometric information, disabilities, socioeconomic information, food purchases, political affiliations, religious information, text messages, documents, student identifiers, search activity, photos, voice recordings, or geolocation information.

(j) “Preschool or prekindergarten purposes” means purposes that customarily take place at the direction of the preschool, prekindergarten, teacher, or school district, or aid in the administration of preschool or prekindergarten activities, including, but not limited to, instruction in the classroom or at home, administrative activities, and collaboration between pupils, preschool or prekindergarten personnel, or parents, or are for the use and benefit of the preschool or prekindergarten.

(l) This section does not limit the ability of an operator to use a pupil’s data, including covered information, for adaptive learning or customized early learning purposes.

(n) This section does not limit ~~Internet~~ internet service providers from providing ~~Internet~~ internet connectivity to preschools, prekindergartens, or pupils and their families.

(r) This section does not impede the ability of pupils to download, export, or otherwise save or maintain their own personally created data or documents.