Abstract
With the ubiquity of mobile devices and the increases in data breaches, Congress has responded with bipartisan support for comprehensive privacy legislation. As of August 2011, 18 bills have been introduced in the 112th Congress concerning data privacy. These privacy bills generally fall into three distinct areas: comprehensive online privacy protection, geolocation and mobile devices, and data security and breach notification. If enacted, many of the bills have implications for data collection, storage, and use that could affect higher education and campus IT operations and academic research.
This Policy Brief provides an overview of the various bills and their current status.
Update: See the Policy Update blog entry, "Status Update on Data Privacy Legislation" (9/23/11), for more information on this, including the addition of a 19th bill (Personal Data Protection and Breach Accountability Act of 2011).