This Week in Student Privacy: 6/9
Florida School District Begins Monitoring Social Media
In late May, “Central Florida's largest school district (Orange County) announced...that it had acquired new software that would allow it to grab and then analyze social-media messages posted from its campuses, whether from students or staff.” The new monitoring program comes in an effort to “curb cyberbullying, crime on campus and suicide.” For more: pulse.ng.
Hamden, CT School District Accused of Disclosing Student Information
According to the Hamden Patch, Connecticut’s “largest teacher’s union is calling for legislative action after it says the Hamden School District threatened student privacy by disclosing personally identifiable student data—without the knowledge of parents or students—to an education industry group.” For more: The Hartford Courant and FoxCT.
Georgia DOE Names Chief Privacy Officer
Last week, the “Georgia Department of Education named Levette Williams chief privacy officer.” Williams “said she will focus on training school districts about the importance of both collecting and protecting data on Georgia students.” According to The Daily Journal, the chief privacy officer “position was created by a new student privacy law (the Student Data, Privacy, Accessibility and Transparency Act) passed this year,...[which set] strict guidelines on what kind of information can be collected and [prevented]” the selling of student data. For more: mySA, The Atlanta Business Chronicle, AJC.com.
Articles/Resources
- Huffington Post interview with danah boyd: “Students: The One Group Missing From Student Data Privacy Laws and Bills”
- James Steyer (CEO of Common Sense Media) for The Bulletin: “Letter: Will Oregon stand for student privacy or cave to the tech industry?”
- EdSurge: “Big Data = Big Responsibility”
- On federal student privacy bills: Lexology - “Student privacy bills introduced in the House and Senate”
- Education World: “Student Data Privacy Legislation: What You Need to Know”
- NYT: “New York City Creates Replacement for Student Data Website”
- Center for Democracy & Technology: “Privacy and the Digital Student”
- CSO: “Whose privacy matters most?”
- NPR: “The Quantified Student: An App That Predicts GPA”
- TAPintoMonclair on Pearson and new student privacy legislation: “Pearson Monitoring of Student Social Media Accounts During PARCC Spurs Bill”
- USA Today College: “Maryland law grants students social media privacy rights”
- Oregon Public Broadcasting: “Oregon Student Privacy Bill Heads To House Floor”
This update was compiled by Hannah Offer. Hannah is a rising freshman at Yale University and a research assistant for the Student Privacy Initiative.