House committee approves student privacy amendment

[Gary Ruskin]

Commercial Alert					April 12, 2000

The U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Education and the
Workforce today approved Rep. George Miller's amendment to protect
schoolchildren from privacy invasion by corporate marketers. 

Many thanks to all who worked hard on this.

Following is Rep. Miller's news release.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Wednesday, April 12, 2000       

CONTACT: Daniel Weiss 202/225-2095

HOUSE COMMITTEE APPROVES REP. MILLER'S STUDENT PRIVACY AMENDMENT

WASHINGTON - In an important victory for student privacy, a
congressional committee voted early this afternoon in favor of requiring
schools to obtain parental consent before students can participate in
market research. The 26-20 vote had the support of all Democratic
members of the committee, as well as five Republicans.  The measure was
offered by U.S. Rep. George Miller (D-CA), a senior committee member. 

Miller said he offered the amendment in response to a rising number of
commercial contracts with public schools that involve divulging personal
information about students.  The amendment requires a parent's written
consent before a student can participate in commercial marketing and
research.  It is supported by the National PTA and Consumers Union and
was modeled on the Student Privacy Protection Act, legislation
introduced last year by Miller.

"Today's vote is an important step toward protecting student privacy and
the parent-child relationship," said Miller. "My bill simply makes it
clear that if students are going to be asked to divulge personal
information to people who plan to profit from it, parents should be
involved in that decision, since it affects their children and
themselves as well.  If parents do not want their children to be objects
of market research firms while in school, they should have the right to
say 'No'.  My bill gives parents that right."

Rep. Miller noted several examples of the growing trend of using the
classroom for market research that would be covered by his amendment: 

kids in a New Jersey elementary school filled out a 27-page booklet
called "My All About Me Journal" as part of a marketing survey for a
cable televison channel; 

students in a Massachusetts elementary school spent two days tasting
cereal and answering a survey;

the ZapMe! Corporation of San Ramon, California provides schools with
free computers but then monitors students' web browsing habits, breaking
the data down by age, sex and ZIP code and with the potential to break
it down by individual as well.

Miller's bill was added to a larger education bill, H.R. 4141, making
changes to federal programs that assist elementary and secondary
schools. That bill is expected to go before the full House later this
year.

###

<--------release ends here--------->
BACKGROUND:
For more information about the ZapMe! Corp. or the broad coalition or
progressive, conservative and privacy organizations that opposes ZapMe's
presence in schools, see
<http://www.essential.org/alert/zapme/index.html>.

Commercial Alert opposes corporate exploitation of children and the
excesses of commercialism, advertising and marketing.

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Gary Ruskin | Commercial Alert 
1611 Connecticut Ave. NW Suite #3A | Washington, DC 20009
Phone: (202) 296-2787 | Fax (202) 833-2406
http://www.essential.org/alert/ | mailto:gary@essential.org
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