What You Need to Know About Privacy Law: A Guide for Librarians and Educators

U.S. privacy laws are confusing and hard to interpret. This book provides clear, substantive guidance to educators who work with minors in these rapidly changing, technological times.

Privacy is now an area of major concern as the use of social media, web beacons, tracking cookies, webcams, GPS-based cell phone tracking, and other 21st-century technologies increasingly proliferate. Educators who work with all ages of students have specific responsibilities to safeguard the students’ personally identifying information. Protecting students’ privacy is particularly critical in the case of minors. Unfortunately, U.S. privacy law is a mystifying patchwork of federal and state laws. Authored by an experienced attorney who specializes in copyright and privacy law, this book overviews laws pertinent to educators and explains how to recognize, analyze, and handle privacy issues as they arise in specific situations in the educational context.

The information in this work is critically important for anyone working in the educational arena, from professors, classroom teachers, and aides to librarians at all levels and administrators. The book’s contents will also help parents to recognize situations that might implicate their child’s privacy rights and provide parents with the appropriate steps to follow to work with the school to protect their child.

Gretchen McCord, MSIS, JD, has been a licensed attorney since 2001, specializing in copyright and privacy law, and is currently a legal consultant and trainer in these areas.