This Week in Student Privacy: 9/15
80,0000 California Students’ Data Compromised
In California, “a data breach […] exposed the the personal information of nearly 80,000 students.” The students “had information such as their login names, course passwords, campus email addresses, gender, race, ethnicity, relationship status and sexual identity stolen.”
The students had “signed up for a mandatory online sex violence prevention course,” and the data was stolen when “the Agent of Change website provider by vendor We End Violence was hacked.” A statement issued by the chancellor’s office said that “As soon as it was learned that student information was exposed by a third-party vendor […] immediate action was taken at the eight impacted campuses to further safeguard student information.”
“Cal State Northridge students are outraged by the hack” on the “White House-recommended vendor” One student commented “Ok, great, the thing I didn’t want to do anyway is now endangering my privacy.” However, “Personally identifying information such as Social Security, credit card and driver’s license numbers was not compromised.”
Read more about the data breach: “Nearly 80,000 college students affected by data breach” (Fox News), “Cal State data breach hits nearly 80,000 students” (LA Times), “California State University oFficials Investigating Data Hack Impacting 8 Schools” (ABC 7)
Articles/Resources
- EducationDIVE: “Obama administration unveils College Scorecard to praise and criticism”
- NY Times: “Gaps in Earnings Stand Out in Release of College Data”
- Campus Safety Magazine: “Court Sides with UCLA in Student Privacy Lawsuit”
- EducationDIVE: “For higher ed, big data brings big potential — and pitfalls”
- Santa Fe New Mexican: “New data gives clearer picture of student debt”
- Government Technology: “Data Privacy Is an Uphill Battle”
- EducationDIVE: “Data analytics and US News rankings: The week’s most-read education news”
- edSurge: “California’s Common Core Test Results Reveal Big Achievement Gaps”
- EducationDIVE: “PARCC votes on, releases testing cut scores”
- WTOP: “Your children’s school could be giving away their information”
- USA Today: “Is your child already victim of identity theft?”
- MIT Technology Review: “AI Software Goes Up Against Fourth Graders on Science Tests”
- eCampus News: “The biggest potential, and biggest challenge, to Big Data in Higher ed”
This update was compiled by Jeremiah Milbauer, with help from Paulina Haduong. Jeremiah is a rising freshman at the University of Chicago and an intern for the Student Privacy Initiative at the Berkman Center for Internet & Society.
