BILL ANALYSIS Ó
SB 1349
Page 1
Date of Hearing: August 8, 2012
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS
Felipe Fuentes, Chair
SB 1349 (Yee) - As Amended: August 6, 2012
Policy Committee: JudiciaryVote:9-0
Higher Education 8-0
Urgency: No State Mandated Local Program:
No Reimbursable:
SUMMARY
This bill establishes a privacy policy for postsecondary
education students with respect to their use of social media.
Specifically, this bill:
1)Defines social media as an electronic medium where users may
create, share, and view user-generated content, including
uploading or downloading videos or still photographs, blogs,
video blogs, podcasts, instant messages, email, or online
services. Prohibits public and private postsecondary
educational institutions from requiring or requesting a
student, prospective student or student group to:
a) Disclose a user name or password for accessing personal
social media.
b) Access personal social media in the presence of the
institution's employee or representative.
c) Divulge any personal social media information.
2)Stipulates that (1) does not:
a) Affect an institution's rights and obligation to protect
against or investigate student misconduct.
b) Prohibit an institution from taking any adverse action
against a student, prospective student, or student group
for any lawful reason.
3)Require every private nonprofit and for-profit institutions to
SB 1349
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post its social media policy on its website.
FISCAL EFFECT
Costs to the state's public postsecondary institutions, if any,
will be minor and absorbable.
COMMENTS
1)Purpose . According to the author, "There is a growing
nationwide trend of colleges and universities who are
requiring user names and passwords to the social media
accounts of students. Student athlete cases have involved
requiring that the student athlete download an application
which monitors the content of their social media account or
requires that the student athlete allow a coach or other
designated person access to the private content of their
social media account."
2)Background . According to the public postsecondary educational
institutions, they do not currently engage in the activities
prohibited by this bill. It appears, however, that some
private postsecondary educational institutions request that
their student athletes provide information on their social
media accounts, reportedly to ensure adherence with student
athlete ethics codes, as required under National Collegiate
Athletic Association (NCAA) rules. The University of Southern
California (USC), which previously submitted Facebook "friend
requests" to its student athletes in an effort to monitor the
student athletes' social media postings and behavior, reports
that the NCAA will not penalize California schools for
complying with this measure. According to USC, the NCAA
requires member schools to monitor its student athletes'
publicly available social media activity in an effort to catch
possible NCAA violations. However the NCAA does not require
California or any other postsecondary educational institutions
to seek to monitor the private personal information contained
in their athletes' non-publicly available social media.
Analysis Prepared by : Chuck Nicol / APPR. / (916) 319-2081