The Top 10: Student Privacy News (July – August 2017)

The Future of Privacy Forum tracks student privacy news very closely, and shares relevant news stories with our newsletter subscribers.* Approximately every month, we post “The Top 10,” a blog with our top student privacy stories. This blog is cross-posted at studentprivacycompass.org. 

The Top 10

1. With the announced elimination of the DACA program yesterday, immigration data and education is on everyone’s mind again.
   • “The Trump Administration Now Has Tons Of DACA Data And Is Poised To Weaponize It,” via The Daily Beast;
   • “DREAMers fear deportations from DACA data,” via PoliticoPro;
   • “As Immigrant Students Worry About a New School Year, Districts & Educators Unveil Plans to Protect Their Safety (and Privacy),” via The 74;
   • “Mass. Schools Emphasize Student Privacy When Dealing With Immigration Officials,” via New England Public Radio;
   • “What Do I Need to Know About the End of DACA?” via the Immigrant Legal Resource Center.
2. Research from Leah Figueroa, a data analyst who has worked in higher education for 13 years, that showed that some higher ed institutions are inappropriately (but not illegally) releasing vast amounts of directory information (see her talk at Infosec Southwest titled “FERPA: Only Your Grades Are Safe – OSINT in Higher Education,” but note some of her FERPA/USED info is incorrect).
3. Ben Herold of EdWeek released a great primer for schools on COPPA (as well as 5 new takeaways from the FTC on COPPA)
4. Personalized learning continues to be a hot topic (as always, worth noting Monica Bulger’s awesome article on the topic and its privacy implications):
   • DQC released an awesome video and infographic on the data that is needed to personalize learning.
   • “Classroom Of The Future: Where Technology Learns As Much About Children As They Do From It,” via Forbes;
   •  “Technology is transforming what happens when a child goes to school,” via The Economist;
   • “Learning Software in Classrooms Earns Praise, Causes Debate(link expired), ” via AP;
   • Personalized Learning is one of 5 key initiatives in the National Governors Association Education Division’s 3-year strategic plan (h/t Doug Levin);
   • “Can personalized learning prevail?” via the Fordham Institute blog.
5. Predictive analytics, algorithm, and AI discussions showed up in a lot of articles this month as well:
   • “Predictive Analytics in Ed-Tech Create New Questions in K-12, Higher Ed,” via EdWeek Market Brief;
   • “Showing the Algorithms Behind New York City Services,” via NY Times;
   • “Real Questions About Artificial Intelligence in Education,” via EdSurge;
   • “Machine Learning and Data Reshape Guidance Counseling,” via EdTech Magazine;
   • “How Predictive Analytics Can Help the School Bus Industry,” via School Transportation News.
6. Edtech, research, and privacy was also a trend in the past month:
   • “Are Student-Privacy Laws Getting in the Way of Education Research?” via EdWeek (reporting on a panel I was part of at NCES STATS-DC);
   • “School Improvement Hinges on [Researcher] Access to Student Data,” via EdWeek;
   • “Balance Between Research and Privacy Takes Shape in Commission Plan,” via EdWeek;
   • “What role does research play in EdTech decision-making?” via WCET;
   • “Who Gets Access to School Data? A Case Study in How Privacy, Politics & Budget Pressures Can Affect Education Research,” via The 74.
7. GDPR has been coming up in education news. In K-12, this included “Preparing for the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) – 10 Steps for Schools [in the UK]” via Harrison Clark Rickerbys Solicitors; and “There Will be Blood – GDPR and EdTech,” via Eylan Ezekiel. EDUCAUSE covered it for higher ed in “GDPR: A Data Regulation to Watch.”
8. “The International Working Group on Data Protection in Telecommunications has adopted new recommendations to improve privacy and security standards for e-learning platforms,” via EPIC.
9. Many articles raised (or should have raised) important student surveillance questions: “Flagler School District Enters Brave New World of Student Computer Controls and Surveillance,” via FlaglerLive; “NY schools to use vaping, bullying detectors,” via Fox5NY; “Student suicide prevention body in talks with Google and Facebook to help at-risk Hongkongers,” via South China Morning Post; “How schools are tracking students using their mobile phones,” via The Age; and “Alief ISD rolls out GPS technology to keeps students safe,” via Click2Houston. It may be worth reading my previous report on surveillance and privacy for those interested in the costs and benefits of surveillance technologies in schools (as well as practical steps to regulate them).
10. Security issues continuously came up this past month:
    • “Breaches in Education Sector up 43 Percent over 2016 Figures(link expired),” via ITRC (h/t Doug Levin);
    • A survey found that “Risky Practices With Students’ Data Security Are Common” (see infographic) – mostly because of human error (see the great article from January, “How can schools protect student data without training teachers in privacy basics?”);
    • In related news, a Minnesota school district accidentally emailed “personal data on most of the district’s 18,000-plus students” to parents and a private school similarly emailed sensitive student medical records to parents unintentionally (leading to a class-action lawsuit);
    • “What Cyberthreats Do Higher Education Institutions Face?” via Forbes;
    • Security changes to the FAFSA link to IRS data were announced, some of which are already frustrating students (read EdWeek coverage here);
    • Doug Levin wrote a couple great blogs on findings from his K-12 Cyber Incident Map, “8 School Districts Have Experienced Multiple Cyber Incidents Since 2016” and “Everything’s Bigger in Texas…Including (Maybe) the Data Breaches;”
    • Indiana’s student data systems lacked “adequate oversight” according to a federal audit;
    • Not specific to education but worth a read: “Companies should treat cybersecurity as a matter of ethics,” via SF Chronicle.

Image: “Drawing competition for school kids” by Simply CVR  is licensed under CC BY 2.0.