Update on Data Privacy and the PSAT
I mentioned yesterday that some groups were trying to gather student data via enrollment to take the PSAT. This info was passed to me by another student data privacy activist in another state.
After my child took placement tests, I was getting spammed by numerous colleges. Each time I wrote the college to give me the source of where they got her information, asked them to remove my daughter from their list and then unsubscribed from the college email as well. Finally, one ethical recruiter gave me a number to call to have my student removed from a list share. From that number I found out my student had been put on another list share. Please find the numbers below:
Contact the National Research Center for College and University Admissions @ 816-525-2201 Peggy Jansen and The Educational Research Center of America (ERCA). Their contact number is: 516-586-1003 and their email is: info@studentresearch.org. Additional contact number at ERCA: 515-248-6100.
ERCA IS SCARY because they market your student to BUSINESSES! The representative at ERCA was very candid and admitted to sharing/selling student data to businesses. ERCA gets that information from the college and career area of YOUR SCHOOL. The representative also stated that ERCA prints on surveys info about sharing data.
It's important to talk to your student before they take these tests because on them is a questionaire asking for private information to be sent to every school throughout the nation in their field of interest. So, if you live in CA and you don't want spam from colleges in NY or FL be alert.
Talk to your student about their privacy rights before allowing them to take these tests or surveys. Other surveys used may include Individual College and Career Planning (ICAP) and Naviance http://www.naviance.com/ as well as Managebac http://managebac.com/.
Another activist:
It's a violation of student privacy cloaked in advantageous college and career opportunities. Parents be aware and check for privacy concerns.
Uaspire, which was mentioned in my first notice of this type of action, appears to be a genuine group. It is, however, unclear to me what data they collect and how they use it. I do know that if your student signs up, they will get regular texts from Uaspire about college opportunities.
After my child took placement tests, I was getting spammed by numerous colleges. Each time I wrote the college to give me the source of where they got her information, asked them to remove my daughter from their list and then unsubscribed from the college email as well. Finally, one ethical recruiter gave me a number to call to have my student removed from a list share. From that number I found out my student had been put on another list share. Please find the numbers below:
Contact the National Research Center for College and University Admissions @ 816-525-2201 Peggy Jansen and The Educational Research Center of America (ERCA). Their contact number is: 516-586-1003 and their email is: info@studentresearch.org. Additional contact number at ERCA: 515-248-6100.
ERCA IS SCARY because they market your student to BUSINESSES! The representative at ERCA was very candid and admitted to sharing/selling student data to businesses. ERCA gets that information from the college and career area of YOUR SCHOOL. The representative also stated that ERCA prints on surveys info about sharing data.
It's important to talk to your student before they take these tests because on them is a questionaire asking for private information to be sent to every school throughout the nation in their field of interest. So, if you live in CA and you don't want spam from colleges in NY or FL be alert.
Talk to your student about their privacy rights before allowing them to take these tests or surveys. Other surveys used may include Individual College and Career Planning (ICAP) and Naviance http://www.naviance.com/ as well as Managebac http://managebac.com/.
Another activist:
I just spoke to Peggy Jansen (below) and she said
if the teacher has questions, call the College Board directly and find
out how to opt out of data sharing and ask them to explain this text
form. The College Board direct number is 866-433-7728.
It's a violation of student privacy cloaked in advantageous college and career opportunities. Parents be aware and check for privacy concerns.
Uaspire, which was mentioned in my first notice of this type of action, appears to be a genuine group. It is, however, unclear to me what data they collect and how they use it. I do know that if your student signs up, they will get regular texts from Uaspire about college opportunities.
Comments
On the positive side, I learned a lot about institutions with which I was unfamiliar. Even considered one of them. There is worse junk mail, I suppose.
EdVoter
Second, what is wrong with colleges sending your students information? Isn't that part of the point of taking PSATs/SATs; to have unknown doors opened to your students?
Yes, there are more ways today to contact and/or harass potential college students and their families, but mining standardized test scores is an old college recruitment trick.
A small part of me is happy that colleges are spending money data-mining to attract strong academic students and not solely for strong college athletes.
EdVoter
At least the PSAT usually has kids paying more attention since they are older and better understand the life implications.
I hate the thought that my kid might not attend Harvard :) because his 2nd grade MAP scores were horrendous.
I was born in the early 70's and I was bombarded with college info after taking the PSATs and SATs. I loved getting it.
I got piles of mail from colleges and the military after doing well on the PSAT in 9th grade. I learned a lot about what was available (beyond my parents' alma mater and its rival) from that mail. This is neither new nor bad.
HP
The fact is that yes, these tests are one indicator that a student might do well at college. It is not the only indicator. It may not be the best indicator. But it is an indicator.
Data sharing is not always bad. RoadMap project is not always bad. The world is not black and white, us against them no matter how hard some commenters try to make it so.
Seen It
For those of you who loved your overfull mailboxes and intrusive phone calls in high school, I have zero problem with that -- IF you purposely opted into it. However, everyone should know that there is a huge lack of transparency today with what kinds of data is being collected, how it gets used, who it gets shared with, how long it lasts, and so on. It's bad enough that it happens with adults, but it's unacceptable that it's happening with students, children, and probably even preschoolers soon, if we don't put our collective feet down.
Some aspects of data mining are indeed opt-in, but it's difficult to know. On the PSAT, for example, the PSAT Supervisor's Manual directions (see pages 10-11) appear to say that if a student merely enters their home address into the form that they are opting in to receive mail from scholarship programs and universities. How many kids are going to not fill in their address?!
The PSAT Educator Guide (see page 6) appears to opt EVERYONE in to having their personal data sent to Telluride Association -- unless you "write to the PSAT/NMSQT office by Oct 13, 2014"! That's unacceptable! Other associations are automatically sent information based on what your student selected as their race on the answer sheet. It's not clear at all that students are opting into sending personal data when they check that box.
Again, it's not a problem if people want to opt into these things, but it should not take a PhD in contract law to be able to understand what personal data you're allowing to be data mined and when/how it will be disposed, and it should ALL be opt-in. No rigamarole to figure out how to opt out.
Thank you Melissa, for sharing this, and I hope some of the rest of you start thinking carefully about what this all means in the context of modern day data mining. It's not the 1970s anymore.
Bring on the college information!And the scholarship information!
HS Parent