Balancing Privacy, Customized Learning Key in Structuring Student Privacy Debate, Solutions
Educational data can help teachers customize lessons while increased use of technology helps keep kids engaged in the classroom, panelists said Monday during a Future of Privacy Forum event. Privacy advocates expressed concerns that data brokers can use educational data in a manner similar to consumer data.
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Post-Edward Snowden leaks, a deep tension exists in all kinds of interactions people have, but Americans have resigned themselves to this new big data reality, said Pew Research Center’s Internet Project Senior Researcher Mary Madden. It’s not that Americans don’t care about privacy, it's that “they just have many other things competing for their time,” Madden said. Americans entrust their data with institutions with which they interact, she said.
According to a survey released Monday of 672 parents, FPF found that parents strongly support the use of education data if it contributes directly to educational purposes, said FPF Senior Counsel Brenda Leong. Ninety percent agreed data could be used to help teachers, and 21 percent said it could be used to help companies offer more targeted ads, the survey found.
Most people don’t think the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) adequately protects privacy, said NYU Information Law Institute Microsoft Research Fellow Elana Zeide. Eight federal student privacy bills have been introduced this year and hundreds of state laws have been proposed or passed because “people are concerned about the security of student information and third-party access,” Zeide said. Part of the problem is that there is very little transparency on why data is being collected on students and how it’s being used, she said.
The need for privacy and security for education data is real, said Data Quality Campaign Vice President for Policy & Advocacy Paige Kowalski. Close to 90 percent of parents expressed concern that their students’ data could be hacked or stolen, with 68 percent of parents expressing concern the data could be used against their children by a college or an employer. Leong said FPF plans to do the survey annually.
Educational data is critical to U.S. success to ensure educators know where progress is being made and where it's not, said Education Trust President Kati Haycock. Data can be used to keep an eye on whether the school-to-prison pipeline and other disciplines disproportionately affect students of color, said Harvard University’s Berkman Center for Internet & Society Student Privacy Initiative Fellow Leah Plunkett.
The availability of student data is incredibly important because it provides policy insights that lead to refinements in legislation, said Stanford University’s Center for Research on Education Outcomes Director Macke Raymond. It was already difficult to gather educational data for research purposes before privacy concerns related to education data became a hot topic, said Georgetown University’s McCourt School of Public Policy professor Jane Hannaway. Researchers haven’t used educational data in a way that has caused privacy concerns, she said.
Educational data is not worth as much as consumer data to hackers, said National Student Clearinghouse Research Center Executive Research Director Doug Shapiro. Not all panelists agreed. Data brokers are able to easily convert education data to consumer data, said Common Sense Media Privacy Review Program Director Bill Fitzgerald.
The real concerns with education data may not be known yet, said Data & Society Research Institute Researcher Monica Bulger. When the Internet first became popular, the concern was that children would be having discussions with 40-year-olds, but eventually people realized pro-suicide and pro-anorexia sites were the real threat, Bulger said. The concern with student data, for example, may become that an algorithm decides whether a child has to repeat the fourth grade, she said.
“We’re not living in an opt-out world anymore,” Bulger said. Even if there was such a world, people don’t talk to children about opt-out or consent, but people must teach them not to share their geographic information, she said.
When having this discussion, attitudes toward tech use must be considered, said FPF Senior Fellow Evan Selinger. Kids often violate terms of use contracts because social norms push for children younger than 13 to use SnapChat, he said. Talking about how to use data and technology is the new sex-ed debate, Selinger said. Parents can turn a blind eye and pretend kids aren't on these devices and apps, but they are, he said.