N.J. Stat. § 56:8-215

Current through L. 2023, c. 194.
Section 56:8-215 - Definitions relative to online education services and student educational records

As used in P.L. 2019, c. 494(C.56:8-215 et seq.):

"Covered information" means personally identifiable information or material, or information that is linked to personally identifiable information or material, in any media or format that is not publicly available and is:

created by or provided to an operator by a student, or the student's parent or guardian, in the course of the student's, parent's, or guardian's use of the operator's site, service, or application for K-12 school purposes;

created by or provided to an operator by an employee or agent of a K-12 school or school district for K-12 school purposes; or

gathered by an operator through the operation of its site, service, or application for K-12 school purposes and personally identifies a student, including, but not limited to, information in the student's education record or electronic mail, first and last name, home address, telephone number, electronic mail address, or other information that allows physical or online contact with the student, discipline records, test results, special education data, juvenile dependency records, grades, evaluations, criminal records, medical records, health records, social security number, biometric information, disabilities, socioeconomic information, persistent unique identifiers, food purchases, political affiliations, religious information, text messages, documents, student identifiers, search activity, photographs, voice recordings, or geolocation data.

"De-identified data" means information that is not or can no longer be linked or reasonably linkable to a person or the person's computer, telecommunications device, or wireless telecommunications device, but which may still contain unique records or attributes. "De-identified data" shall not mean covered information.

"Interactive computer service" shall have the same meaning as provided in 47 U.S.C. s. 230.

"K-12 school" means a public school that offers any of grades kindergarten to 12 and that is operated by any school district in this State.

"K-12 school purposes" means purposes that are directed by or that customarily take place at the direction of a school district, K-12 school, teacher, or school district or aid in the administration of school activities, including, but not limited to, instruction in the classroom or at home, administrative activities, and collaboration between students, school personnel, or parents or guardians, or are otherwise for the use of a benefit of the school district or K-12 school.

"Online education service" or "service" means an Internet website, online service, online computer application, or mobile application that is used primarily for K-12 school purposes and is designed and marketed for K-12 school purposes.

"Operator" means the operator of an online education service with actual knowledge that the online education service is used primarily for K-12 school purposes and is designed and marketed for K-12 school purposes.

"Persistent unique identifier" means a digital label given to an object, such as a digital file, or entity, such as a person, which is used on the online education service.

"Personally identifiable information" means information that is linked or reasonably linkable to an identified or identifiable person. "Personally identifiable information" shall not include de-identified data or publicly available information.

"Publicly available information" means information that is lawfully made available from federal, State, or local government records.

"Recommendation engine" means software that uses an algorithm to predict and recommend what information, product, or item a student may prefer.

"School district" means any school district established pursuant to Title 18A of the New Jersey Statutes.

"Student" means a minor user of an online education service.

"Targeted advertising" means the presenting of advertisements to a student where the advertisement is selected based on information obtained or inferred over time from that student's online behavior, use of Internet websites, online services, online computer applications, or mobile applications, or covered information. "Targeted advertising" shall not include advertising to a student at an online location based upon that student's current visit to that location, or in response to that student's request for information or feedback, without the retention of the student's online activities or requests over time for the purpose of targeting subsequent advertisements.

N.J.S. § 56:8-215

Added by L. 2019, c. 494,s. 1, eff. 1/21/2020.