Student Data Privacy Debate

It's heating up.

There was a great debate on Here and Now on NPR between Mary Fox-Alter, superintendent of schools in Pleasantville, N.Y., and Aimee Rogstad Guidera, executive director of the Data Quality Campaign (and note, DQC is a Gates group).

A hugely important article appeared in the NY Times about a California legislator who is introducing a student data privacy bill. 

Who can truly argue with this statement regarding students and their student data?

 “We just think the public policy of California should be that the information you gather from students should be used for their educational benefit and for nothing else.”
I believe Arne Duncan will be speaking on this issue today so I will have an update when details come in.

Comments

Anonymous said…
Well, I still think the data should be used for the benefit of others, too. But, that should only be done with opt-in, informed consent. And that's not what the big data wants. They've become accustomed to the kind of data they get, when you do google searches, participate in facebook, use gmail, . . . . that they think they should have access to the same data from schools.

But, schools are a government service, and signing up for school should not be conditioned on your consent to giving up your privacy (and you get to choose what's important to you, not those who want the data, or even, me).

zb
2/24/14, 12:00 PM
Anonymous said…
zb, I'll take it one step further. Since students are compelled to attend school (i.e., school is more than just a government service --- students are forced to attend school), even more care should be taken to protect their rights, including their data privacy rights.

--- swk
2/24/14, 12:12 PM
Anonymous said…
Yes,
zb
2/24/14, 12:51 PM
Melissa Westbrook said…
From New York state where all public school students' data was uploaded to Gates' inBloom data cloud and what was first said:

"According to a spokesman for the NYS Education Department, parents have no right to opt out or consent, because "when parents register a child for school, they give up" the right to keep their children's information private."

"The DOE now claims that according to state guidelines "there is no formal provision for parents to opt their children out of inBloom."

I know that NY state activists are working on bill as we speak.
2/24/14, 3:15 PM
mirmac1 said…
The sneaky way this is being foisted on families makes me think seriously, for the very first time, about private school. If we can't opt out, then how else can we protect personal information? BTW, I've also thought about going off grid and moving to Iceland. Gaw!
2/24/14, 6:08 PM
Anonymous said…
I suppose that would be a good response for those pesky truancy officers... I opt. out!
2/24/14, 8:54 PM
Anonymous said…
I suppose that would be a good response for those pesky truancy officers... I opt. out!
2/24/14, 8:55 PM
Allen jeley said…
Amazing idea and this article tell me a student how to save his reading data in computer online thanks for share it company profile writing .
4/13/16, 4:51 AM
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