Bill would stop alcohol, tobacco marketing to kids online
Attorney General Matt Denn is pushing a package of bills to protect the online privacy of Delawareans, including forbidding employers from demanding employees and applicants give their social media passwords and stopping companies from marketing alcohol and tobacco to children online.
The four bills, aimed at regulating the privacy and safety of Internet users, was unveiled by Denn and lawmakers in Wilmington on Friday.
“Everything is different now because of the Internet,” Denn said. “In a lot of ways that is a really good thing, but the presence of the Internet ... also raises legitimate concerns about privacy and safety that didn’t exist 15 years ago.”
The bills are:
• Online Privacy and Protection Act
This act, if passed, would restrict websites from marketing certain products, such as alcohol, tobacco, gambling, firearms and body piercing, to children.
House Speaker Pete Schwartzkopf, a Democrat, said this will protect children in the same way that laws decades ago were enacted to stop marketing of cigarettes to teens.
“Today, we have children and teens using social media sites and being bombarded with ads for alcohol, tobacco products, weapons and other things that are not appropriate – or even legal – for people that age,” he said.
This bill would also require companies that collect personal information of online users to post a privacy policy explaining how they plan to use that information.
It would also restrict online book service companies from disclosing information about customers’ reading choices.
• Victim Online Privacy Act
The Department of Justice has since 2011 had a program, called Address Confidentiality, that is meant to protect the identities of victims of violent crimes. The program allows victims to have their mail forwarded to them by the Department of Justice.
This bill would extend that program to make it illegal for someone to post a victim’s personal information, such as address, image or phone number, online against their will.
• Employer use of social media
This bill would prohibit employers from requiring employees or applicants to give access to personal social media accounts.
Denn said the bill would create some exceptions, such as in cases where the employer is investigating wrongdoing or in certain professions like law enforcement.
The bill also does not impact employers’ existing control over accounts created for business purposes and the activity of employees on electronic devices issued or paid for by the company.
“Some people, like me, allow everyone access to their social media accounts,” Denn said. “Others use theirs in different ways and intend them to be used only by their family and friends.”
• Student Data Privacy Protection Act
The final legislation would create greater restrictions for the way online data collected about students can be used by internet service operators.
For example, the internet service operators must delete student data within 45 days and are not allowed to sell or use the data.
“I wouldn’t let my credit card information get out to everyone, and that is what we are doing with our education data,” said House Education Chair Earl Jaques, a Democrat and sponsor for the bill.
The package of bills, which mirrors recently enacted laws in other states, was drafted by lawmakers and the Department of Justice’s Consumer Fraud Unit.
House Majority Leader Valerie Longhurst, a Democrat, told The News Journal earlier this week that Internet service providers, Comcast and Verizon, have already requested meetings to oppose parts of the legislation.
“We have worked very hard to try to anticipate every complication with these bills, but I’m sure as they make their way through the legislature there will be questions and changes that will have to be made based on how complicated these issues can be,” Denn said Friday.
Contact Jessica Masulli Reyes at 302-324-2777, jmreyes@delawareonline.com or Twitter @JessicaMasulli.