July 2014

A bipartisan team of senators is looking to better safeguard students’ privacy by placing new limits on schools and companies that share personal information.

Sens Ed Markey (D-MA), Orrin Hatch (R-UT), Mark Kirk (R-IL) and John Walsh (D-MT) introduced the Protecting Student Privacy Act on Wednesday, which they said would make sure that parents and students alike are better protected and informed as more of their grades, test scores and other data get caught up in the $7.9 billion market for educational technology.

A British House of Lords committee has strongly criticized the ruling by Europe’s top court that said search engines like Google must remove links to people’s personal information if asked, and where there is no public interest involved. The peers said this was proving unworkable. In a report, the European Union committee also urged the UK government to reject upcoming European data protection revisions that will entrench and expand this so-called “right to be forgotten.”

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) is pledging to protect network neutrality from Republican attacks.

In letters to net neutrality advocates, Sen Reid said he supports forthcoming rules to keep Internet providers from discriminating against certain Internet traffic and will protect those rules from Senate Republicans. “Let me be clear: I support net neutrality,” he wrote, while pledging to “lead the fight” to protect net neutrality rules “against the inevitable Republican attack against such rules.” “I believe that the Internet is one of the great equalizers of our time,” he wrote. “Especially in a time when dark money threatens to take over our political system, the Internet offers a forum for people to make a difference with ideas, not dollars.”

Sen Reid did not weigh in on what approach the agency should take in rewriting those rules but said he is “watching closely as the commission drafts these rules.” “I will work to ensure that these rules give consumers access to the lawful content they want when they want it, without interference and ensure that priority arrangements that harm consumers are prohibited,” he wrote.

Virgin Mobile's new build-your-own smartphone plans may be seen as convenient by many consumers, but they also represent the most glaring net neutrality foul we've seen come from a US carrier.

The Sprint-owned company likely suspects that most people won't care about the latter point. Virgin customers will be able to piece together a completely personalized plan -- plans that could potentially turn social networks like Facebook and Twitter into line items on your monthly bill. Because with Virgin's new approach, you're no longer just paying for voice, texts, and a bucket of data. The Virgin Mobile Custom plans, launching exclusively at Walmart on August 9th, let you pay separate fees for things like unlimited social networking and unlimited music streaming.