New York officials say they will release confidential student data in July to Rupert Murdoch and Bill Gates’ inBloom, despite parental protests and a futile lawsuit. Why the unseemly rush to give away student information?

Meanwhile a California legislator has introduced a proposal to protect student privacy.

The California law is sponsored by Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg:

“A leading California lawmaker plans to introduce state legislation on Thursday that would shore up privacy and security protections for the personal information of students in elementary through high school, a move that could alter business practices across the nearly $8 billion education technology software industry.

“The bill would prohibit education-related websites, online services and mobile apps for kindergartners through 12th graders from compiling, using or sharing the personal information of those students in California for any reason other than what the school intended or for product maintenance.

“The bill would also prohibit the operators of those services from using or disclosing the information of students in the state for commercial purposes like marketing. It would oblige the firms to encrypt students’ data in transit and at rest, and it would require them to delete a student’s record when it is no longer needed for the purpose the school intended.”

What part of “privacy” do New York officials not understand or care about? Or is their zeal to share a part of the ill-fated Race to the Top project to build a massive data warehouse for vendors?