School Computer Privacy (H 7509)

This bill would implement comprehensive privacy policy requirements for any school-loaned device program.

In recent years, the distribution of computers to students in RI public schools for home use has become extremely commonplace, if not ubiquitous across districts. Unfortunately, as a study we conducted from two years ago showed, students have virtually no privacy protections on these computers, with some policies even allowing remote spying on students. This bill would implement comprehensive privacy requirements for such computers which would allow school officials to search devices only if they have reasonable suspicion to believe that the student has engaged in misconduct on the computer, and would prohibit remote access except in very limited circumstances.