President Barack Obama publicly announced the first of his initiatives aimed at improving digital privacy for Americans on Monday, turning his focus on students and consumers.
Obama is embarking on a week-long privacy push, with plans in place for him to speak at the Department of Homeland Security on Tuesday. The timing of the efforts comes as serious security questions remain about U.S. companies in the wake of high-profile hacks on customer data as well as the breach to Sony Pictures.
The U.S. government also has its own security to worry about. Twitter and YouTube accounts of the U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) were hacked by ISIS supporters on Monday. The hacking group, which calls itself Cyber Caliphate, posted several Pentagon documents, army rosters and other information.
[seealso slug=http://sale-online.click/2014/12/22/privacy-fantasy-pew/%5D%3C/p%3E%3Cp%3EA fact sheet published by the White House highlighted the president's other plans, including the introduction of consumer protection rules. The Personal Data Notification & Protection Act will require companies to notify victims of a data breach within 30 days. Numerous security breaches in 2014 disclosed sensitive information from millions of Americans.
A second new bill -- the Student Digital Privacy Act -- would stop companies from selling student data for reasons not related to education as well as prevent school data from being used for advertising.
"We want our kids privacy protected—no matter where they sign on." —President Obama #Cybersecurity— Barack Obama (@BarackObama) January 12, 2015
Speaking at the Federal Trade Commission, Obama also announced that he will attempt to establish the Consumer Privacy Bill of Rights, which would establish guidelines for data collection that is linkable to a particular person. The legislation had been proposed in 2012, but privacy bills have had a hard time getting through Congress.
Privacy advocates had championed the bill, claiming that widespread data collection represented a serious threat to the privacy of Americans.
"I hope Congress joins us to make the Consumer Privacy Bill of Rights the law of the land." —President Obama: http://t.co/Xykz3ezmPn— The White House (@WhiteHouse) January 12, 2015