Today, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ (HHS) Office for Civil Rights (OCR) issued guidance to help the public understand when the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA) Privacy Rule applies to disclosures and requests for information about whether a person has received a COVID-19 vaccine. The guidance reminds the…
Category: Youth & Schools
FPF’s 2020 Student Privacy Pledge: New Pledge, Similar Problems
EFF legal intern Rob Ferrari was the lead author of this post by Sophia Cope, Jason Kelley, and Bill Budington: A new school year has started, the second one since the pandemic began. With our education system becoming increasingly reliant on the use of technology (“edtech”), especially for remote learning during the pandemic, protecting student privacy is more…
CA: Flyer about inspecting private parts was prank, warns Moreno Valley Unified
Beau Yarbrough reports: Contrary to a flyer distributed at Moreno Valley’s Vista del Lago High School and on social media soon thereafter, the Moreno Valley Unified School District is not conducting a “penis inspection day.” “In an effort to clearly communicate with parents about safety issues, I want to let you know that we are…
Why a Virginia judge got it wrong on student COVID-19 data
Megan Rhyne is executive director of the Virginia Coalition for Open Government, a nonprofit alliance formed to promote expanded access to government records, meetings and other proceedings at the state and local level. She has a commentary in the Virginia Mercury that begins: Last week a Rockingham County Circuit Judge ruled in favor of James…