Privacy

Privacy in a Networked Environment

With the explosive growth of electronic networks and wide accessibility of online information, EDUCAUSE members -- along with many other higher education constituencies -- are dealing with a formidable set of privacy issues. A key set of issues revolves around the handling of student information, which under the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) of 1974 enjoys special protection.

Final Report - NSF-Lamp Project: Identifying Where Technology Logging and Monitoring for Increased Security End and Violations of Personal Privacy and Student Records Begin By Virginia Rezmierski and Nathaniel St. Clair, II This report, published by the American Association of Collegiate Registrars and Admissions Officers (AACRAO), details findings of the Logging and Monitoring Privacy Project (LAMP) funded by the National Science Foundation. The project examined the types and extent of computer logging on a sample of college and university campuses, including the purpose of such logging; how much and what kind of information was being collected; how the information was being used; and how many people had access to it. The project sought to determine whether the kinds of log data being collected constitute "education records" as defined by the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) and if various uses of the data violate privacy rights of students under the act.

Speaker: Erv Blythe, Vice President for Information Technology, Virginia Tech

On April 16, 2007 a student at Virginia Tech shot and killed 32 faculty and students before killing himself in an academic building on campus. 25 others were wounded. The university is still dealing with the aftermath, and expects it to be an ongoing concern for the foreseeable future. This EDUCAUSE Live! session will consist of encapsulated summaries of the information-technology-related lessons learned, presented by the Vice President for Information Technology, Erv Blythe. Among them are the impact on the university's communication system; the notification issue; radio communications interoperability; the sheer logistics of accommodating the communications infrastructure and control center needs for a variety of emergency responders and law enforcement; identity management and privacy; and data preservation and computer forensics. Overriding all of these issues is the question of federal, state and local policies and ways in which policy issues were encountered, confronted, and managed.

Non-EDUCAUSE resources:

• The internal review report for the Communications Infrastructure
• Governor Kaine's Review Panel final report

Previous Seminars

FERPA Resources

• Family Policy Compliance Office (FPCO) The mission of the Family Policy Compliance Office (FPCO) is to meet the needs of the Department's primary customers, learners, by effectively implementing two laws that seek to ensure student and parental rights in education: the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) and the Protection of Pupil Rights Amendment (PPRA). Includes History on the FERPA Act.
• Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) - Final Regulations April 2004
• FERPA Resources AACRAO's FERPA site. Resources include a FERPA Online Guide and a a FERPA Final Exam.

EDUCAUSE Resources

Privacy White Paper

Privacy and the Handling of Student Information in the Electronic Networked Environments of Colleges and Universities /ir/library/pdf/pub3102.pdf [PUB3102], a CAUSE white paper, published in April of 1997.

The EDUCAUSE office in Washington DC has a policy initiatives program that is involved with legislative issues related to IT. For more information please see the Policy Initiatives page

Information Resources Library

• Family Education Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA)
• Privacy Issues
• Security Issues
• Data Administration
• Campus Policies Related to Privacy
  • Privacy Policies
  • Security Policies
  • General Information Policies
  • Acceptable Use Policies
  • Ethics Policies
  • Access Policies
  • Data Retention Policies

Some General Sources of Information about Online Privacy

• Electronic Frontier Foundation, a non-profit civil liberties organization working in the public interest to protect privacy, free expression, and access to public resources and information in new media.
• Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC), a public interest research center in Washington, D.C., established in 1994 to focus public attention on emerging civil liberties issues and to protect privacy.
• Privacy Forum, a moderated digest for the discussion and analysis of issues relating to the general topic of privacy (both personal and collective) in the "information age" of the 1990's and beyond.
• Computer Professionals for Social Responsibility (CPSR) , a public-interest alliance of computer scientists and others interested in the impact of computer technology on society.