Student data protection passes House

Oklahoma House lawmakers have voted to prohibit the release of confidential student data without the written consent of the student’s parent or guardian.

House Bill 1989 – the Student Data Accessibility, Transparency and Accountability Act –passed out of the House by a vote of 87-0.

State Rep. Brumbaugh, who authored the legislation, said that the collection of and sharing of student’s data has been a major concern all over the U.S. and now in Oklahoma.  

“Our state Department of Education even posted personal information of students applying for EOI waivers on the State Department of Education website,” Brumbaugh said.

Brumbaugh said the confidentiality of student information is a safety issue.

“It’s simply good state policy to help safeguard the privacy of Oklahoma’s children and families,” Brumbaugh said. “Children under 18 are vulnerable to attack by Internet predators.  Collecting and sharing information on minor children can result in tragedy since no database is impregnable to a hacker’s intent on mischief.”

The legislation advances to the state Senate.

Rep. Mullin requests your input

U.S. Rep. Markwayne Mullin (OK-2) announced today, March 13, he is encouraging citizens to make public comments on the Keystone XL project before April 22.

“The details on public comment are available on the State Department’s web site, but that can be difficult to navigate. We wanted to make it easy for people to find the email and physical addresses to which comments should be submitted,” Mullin said.

“We hope that people will take time during the comment period to make their views on the pipeline project known. Here in Oklahoma, we are seeing the tremendous economic impact this project is having in our state,” he added.

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Google Wi-Fi eavesdropping

Google will pay $7 million to settle complaints from dozens of U.S. states about its unauthorized collection of personal data transmitted over Wi-Fi networks.

The money will be paid to 37 states and the District of Columbia, which had gone after Google after it admitted that its Street View cars had collected the data inadvertently between 2008 and 2010.

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Senator Inhofe joins 12 to defund Obamacare

U.S. Sen. Jim Inhofe (R-Okla.) Tuesday, March 13, joined a dozen other senators  in offering an amendment to the Continuing Resolution legislation in the Senate to defund the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.

“ObamaCare is and never was the shining star that President Obama and Democrats sold it to the American public as when they forced it through Congress,” said Inhofe.

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Senators McCain and Coburn on wasteful spending

U.S. Senators John McCain (R-AZ) and Tom Coburn (R-OK) today, March 13, commented on the 587-page Continuing Resolution before the Senate this week that spends over $1 trillion in federal tax dollars.

Senator John McCain released the following statement:

“As budget sequestration continues to level strain and uncertainty on the men and women of our nation’s armed forces, and as we draw closer to the ‘devastating’ effects on our military readiness as foreseen by our former Secretary of Defense, Members of Congress have an even more profound responsibility to account for every taxpayer dollar. Every dollar we waste through pork barrel spending today is a dollar not spent to support our troops and preserve our nation’s security.

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