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The issue of how to manage student data and privacy as education technology advances is rippling through U.S. states and becoming a growing concern on a federal level. The management of information about children has garnered a brighter spotlight since Edward Snowden’s NSA revelations in June 2013, as well as with parents increasingly concerned about the use of their children’s data for advertising purposes. Even more so as web-based applications and cloud services integrate into educational processes.
California passed a “landmark” student data privacy law in late September, with the legislation itself heralded as one of the most progressive measures enacted to regulate the use of student data. The Student Online Personal Information Protection Act (SOPIPA) prohibits technology companies that operate online educational services from using student data and selling it to third parties to target advertising to students. It also prohibits these companies from amassing profiles on students for non-educational purposes.
Source: Bureau of Labor Statistics
While other states are working on similar legislation, some technology companies themselves have just come forward to pledge their protection of student data and their dedication to ensuring against its use for advertising targeting, etc. The companies on board are comprised of some big names in education tech in the U.S. – Microsoft is among them. The pledge has been drafted in conjunction with the think tank Future of Privacy Forum, and trade group Software & Information Industry Association.
One of the specific measures the pledge prohibits is the one of selling information of students in kindergarten through 12th grade. But privacy advocates are already decrying the pledge as insufficient in the face of widespread misuse of the data of young people on the internet. Indeed, Yelp just settled with the Federal Trade Commission for violating child privacy rules, and Google has been under fire — specifically in California — for potentially violating student data laws as well as wiretap laws. One of the main complaints of privacy advocates is that not enough “big tech” companies (i.e. Google and Apple) have signed on.
The debate will likely rage until state and/or federal laws can catch up to the integration of virtual technologies in school systems. Necessarily, companies like Google will have to be on board to really set parents’ minds at ease. But until then, a mixture of private pledges and public government-based efforts will seemingly have to combine to ensure against children’s data misuse.
