Obama Reveals Plans To Protect Americans From Data Breach, Boost Online Privacy

President Obama has unveiled plans for protecting Americans against data breach, and improving online privacy and protecting children's data.

In a lead-up to his State of the Union address next week, the President made a visit to the Federal Trade Commission on Jan. 12 to talk about "how we can better protect American consumers from identity theft and ensure our privacy, including for our children at school."

He underscored that with the hacking incident against Sony last year, "this extraordinary interconnection creates enormous opportunities, but also creates enormous vulnerabilities for us as a nation and for our economy, and for individual families."

Obama said he will introduce new legislation that will "create a single, strong national standard so Americans know when their information has been stolen or misused."

Under the Personal Data Notification and Protection Act, companies have to notify consumers of a data breach in 30 days. The U.S. will also go after criminals overseas who steal and sell identities of Americans.

He noted that more banks, credit card issuers and lenders including JPMorgan Chase and Bank of America are giving free access to consumers to their credit scores.

"And we're encouraging more companies to join this effort every day," the President said.

Obama will also introduce the Consumer Privacy Bill of Rights legislation to protect personal privacy.

The White House said in 45 days, it will release the revised legislative proposal and will call on Congress to act on it.

"For example, we believe that consumers have the right to decide what personal data companies collect from them and how companies use that data, that information; the right to know that your personal information collected for one purpose can't then be misused by a company for a different purpose; the right to have your information stored securely by companies that are accountable for its use," Obama said.

The President will also introduce the Student Digital Privacy Act proposal "to protect the personal information and privacy of our children."

He noted that children these days meet up online, "whether they are texting or tweeting, or on Facebook, or Instagram, or Vine."

"We're saying that data collected on students in the classroom should only be used for educational purposes -— to teach our children, not to market to our children," he said, adding that this will prevent companies from selling student data to third parties for purposes other than education.

While it will take time before this becomes a law, Obama announced that 75 companies have signed the Student Privacy Pledge and committed not to sell student data or use educational technologies in advertising that target students.

"So, this mission, protecting our information and privacy in the Information Age, this should not be a partisan issue," he said.

"The more we do to protect consumer information and privacy, the harder it is for hackers to damage our businesses and hurt our economy," Obama said. "Meanwhile, the more companies strengthen their cybersecurity, the harder it is for hackers to steal consumer information and hurt American families. So we've got to all be working together in the same direction, and I'm confident if we do we'll be making progress."