I missed this one when it first appeared, but it’s noteworthy.
An ad agency’s request for the phone numbers and email addresses of North Dakota college students during the recent campaign season has prompted the state Board of Higher Education to ask lawmakers to exempt students’ contact information from the state’s open records laws.
Bismarck-based Odney Advertising, a campaign consultant to the state Republican Party and GOP candidates, was slammed by Democrats after company president Pat Finken emailed the North Dakota University System on Sept. 6 requesting the names, addresses, email addresses and phone numbers for some 48,000 students attending the system’s 11 public institutions.
[…]
A piece of legislation pre-filed last week, Senate Bill 2133, would make college students’ email, home and mailing addresses and phone numbers exempt from the state’s open records laws.
Read more on InForum.
So the Democrats suddenly woke up to directory information concerns, it seems. But does the bill over-react? We’ll have to wait to see the language of the bill when it’s introduced.