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Past Project

Student Privacy Initiative

In both formal and informal educational settings, increasingly powerful and innovative ICT products and services—many of which depend on cloud computing technologies, particularly Software as a Service- (Saas) based tools—offer tremendous potential for schools to provide educators and students with new platforms and tools to shape, improve, and expand learning experiences, even in the face of continually shrinking budgets.

However, the significant benefits that cloud-computing technologies may afford do not come without associated tradeoffs and potential costs. Specifically, in education just as in other sectors, customers moving from on-premise products and services to cloud-computing solutions must grant the cloud provider access to potentially vast amounts of customer data. Significant questions about precisely what information the vendor might access and collect and what the vendor might do with this information are rapidly emerging in a number of areas where cloud services are being deployed, and educational settings tend to illustrate and amplify many of the most critical privacy questions and concerns.

Against the backdrop of these opportunities and challenges, the Berkman Klein Center Student Privacy Initiative—part of our growing suite of Privacy Initiatives—will begin and sustain a multi-disciplinary, multi-stakeholder conversation on student privacy. This Initiative, led by Executive Director Urs Gasser, will consider privacy and technological issues in a grounded way that accounts for how they may intersect with existing policy regimes as well as with emerging developments in educational theory (e.g., connected learning) and institutional practices (e.g., refining technology policies within an individual school), each of which may raise new costs, risk factors, and opportunities. Moreover, on the commercial side, the Initiative will take into account emerging business models and pressures tied to data collection and “big data”, trends that only increase the stakes associated with this inquiry. By bringing together representatives from these diverse perspectives alongside students, parents, and teachers, the Student Privacy Initiative hopes to consider student privacy and “the cloud” in a holistic way that balances the needs and objectives of each group. We endeavor to ultimately hone a shared set of good practices designed to support the many potential benefits of cloud-based technologies in educational settings.


Our Work 48

Event
Dec 8, 2015 @ 12:00 PM

State of Student Privacy

with Urs Gasser, Sandra Cortesi, Dalia Topelson Ritvo, Paulina Haduong, and Leah Plunkett

The Berkman Center’s Student Privacy Initiative will be taking stock of our student privacy work to date and exploring future directions. At this luncheon, the Berkman team will…

News
Aug 11, 2015

This Week in Student Privacy: 8/11

This week, Future of Privacy Forum released “a new paper on the ‘de-identification’ of sensitive student information,” which discusses the value of student data, the types of…

News
Aug 4, 2015

This Week in Student Privacy: 8/04

This report prioritizes open issues and offers recommended next steps in the ed tech and connected learning space, building from and reflecting upon a conversation organized by…

Publication
Jul 30, 2015

Student Privacy: The Next Frontier

Emerging & Future Privacy Issues in K-12 Learning Environments

Building off several prior working meetings which mapped and considered the implications of the new and rapidly evolving ecosystem of networked technology being used with…

News
Jul 28, 2015

This Week in Student Privacy: 7/28

"The 'Student Privacy Protection Act' aims to expand the scope of student information that is protected by law, place new obligations on both educational institutions and third…

Jul 21, 2015

This Week in Student Privacy: 7/21

“Sens. Steve Daines (R-Mont.) and Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) on Thursday introduced the Safe Kids Act.” The bill “[w]ould ban education companies — online homework portals,…

News
Jul 14, 2015

This Week in Student Privacy: 7/14

Collectively, 28 school districts and school-based organizations have founded a new initiative, the Trusted Learning Environment. CoSN (the Consortium for School Networking) has…

News
Jul 7, 2015

This Week in Student Privacy: 7/7

At ISTE 2015, the Software & Information Industry Association (SIIA) released “a new analysis of how educators view their schools' and districts' use of technology and student…

News
Jun 30, 2015

This Week in Student Privacy: 6/30

In a recent blog post, the U.S. Department of Education stated that the President’s effort to “rate colleges based on affordability and quality” “will be more about making…

News
Jun 23, 2015

This Week in Student Privacy: 6/23

Group of Teachers Files Complaints Against California Virtual Academies According to The Washington Post, a “group of (16) teachers at a network of California virtual…

Jun 16, 2015

This Week in Student Privacy: 6/16

Last week, the Oregon House of Representatives “passed a bill...to protect personal information of K-12 students shared online.” The bill “easily sailed through the Oregon Senate…

News
Jun 9, 2015

This Week in Student Privacy: 6/9

In late May, “Central Florida's largest school district (Orange County) announced...that it had acquired new software that would allow it to grab and then analyze social-media…

News
May 27, 2015

This Week in Student Privacy: 5/27

Last week, Chicago Public School officials confirmed that “[f]ive vendors seeking to do business with the Chicago school district were delivered real personal data of 4,000…

News
May 19, 2015

This Week in Student Privacy: 5/19

Last week, Senators Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.) and Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) reintroduced the Protecting Student Privacy Act of 2015 in the U.S. Senate...

May 6, 2015

This Week in Student Privacy: 5/6

Last week, after several delays, Reps. Jared Polis (D-CO) and Luke Messer (R-IN) introduced the Student Digital Privacy and Parental Rights Act of 2015. According to Natasha…

News
Apr 15, 2015

This Week in Student Privacy: 4/15

Last week, the Maryland “House of Delegates and state Senate both passed bills to strengthen students’ online privacy by prohibiting universities from intruding on private social…

Apr 7, 2015

This Week in Student Privacy: 4/7

According to Politico’s Morning Education, “Reps. Jared Polis and Luke Messer had planned to introduce a student data privacy bill last week, but their draft drew fierce criticism…

News
Mar 31, 2015

This Week in Student Privacy: 3/31

Last week, “[t]he District of Columbia's Office of the State Superintendent inadvertently released confidential data for thousands of students while responding to a Freedom of…

News
Mar 24, 2015

This Week in Student Privacy: 3/24

The bill, sponsored by House Reps. Luke Messer (R-Ind.) and Jared Polis (D-Colo.), was supposed to be introduced in the House on Monday, but has been delayed due to criticism…

News
Mar 17, 2015

This Week in Student Privacy: 3/17

The New York Times’ Natasha Singer wrote about how many new ‘adaptive learning’ products available to educators (applications which record and analyze student work to personalize…

News
Mar 10, 2015

This Week in Student Privacy: 3/10

According to Natasha Singer of The New York Times, several “Digital Learning Companies [are] Falling Short of [the] Student Privacy Pledge.” Singer reported that as of last week--…

News
Mar 3, 2015

This Week in Student Privacy: 3/3

Last Friday, “[t]he Obama administration released a draft of new data privacy legislation [the proposed legislation can be found here], renewing a debate over how to regulate…

News
Feb 24, 2015

This Week in Student Privacy: 2/24

According to info security, “Microsoft has become the first major cloud provider to adopt the first international cloud privacy standard developed by the International…

News
Feb 17, 2015

This Week in Student Privacy: 2/17

"School Choice Wisconsin, which “lobbies for public money to support the education of children in private schools, made requests under the state’s open record laws recently to…

News
Feb 10, 2015

This Week in Student Privacy: 2/10

According to Education Week, “[p]roposed student-data-privacy legislation being championed by President Barack Obama is being readied for introduction in the U.S. House of…

News
Feb 3, 2015

This Week in Student Privacy: 2/3

Education Week obtained “a draft of the ‘Student Digital Privacy and Innovation Act,’ which President Obama called for in his speech at the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) on…

News
Jan 26, 2015

This Week in Student Privacy: 1/26

A new statewide Illinois anti-cyberbullying law, which came into effect January 1st, “requires that elementary and secondary schools students provide social media passwords” to…

News
Jan 13, 2015

This Week in Student Privacy: 1/13

President Obama Plans to Better Protect Americans’ Cyber Security & Privacy President Obama “unveiled legislation to help protect consumers and students against cyberattacks” on…

Dec 16, 2014

This Week in Student Privacy: 12/16

We hope you’ve been enjoying our newsletter! We’ll be on hiatus until January 13 - Happy Holidays! Does FERPA apply to MOOCs? Two weeks ago at a symposium on student…

News
Dec 9, 2014

This Week in Student Privacy: 12/9

New Google Products in the Works for Kids & Tweens According to USA Today’s profile of Pavni Diwanji, Google’s Vice President of engineering, “beginning next year [Google] plans…

Dec 2, 2014

This Week in Student Privacy: 12/2

Common Core Opponents Claim COPPA Offers “Opt Out Loophole” According to Politico’s Morning Education, “[p]arents organizing against PARCC's [Partnership for Assessment of…

Nov 25, 2014

This Week in Student Privacy: 11/25

ClassDojo Revises Privacy Policy Following Privacy Concerns ClassDojo, an app used by teachers to track and manage students’ behavior in class, has recently garnered media…

News
Nov 18, 2014

This Week in Student Privacy: 11/18

Mozilla announces Polaris, a new privacy initiative In coordination with the Center for Democracy & Technology (CDT) and the Tor Project, Mozilla has announced a “strategic…

News
Nov 11, 2014

This Week in Student Privacy: 11/11

Harvard Reveals Secret Classroom Attendance Study Last week, Harvard University “revealed that it secretly photographed some 2,000 students in 10 lecture halls last spring as…

News
Nov 4, 2014

This Week in Student Privacy: 11/4

Interested in getting "This Week in Student Privacy" in your inbox? Sign up here. ACLU and EFF Urge Tennessee School District to Revise Allegedly Unconstitutional Tech Policy …

Oct 28, 2014

This Week in Student Privacy: 10/28

Interested in getting "This Week in Student Privacy" in your inbox? Sign up here. L.A. Unified Superintendent of Schools John Deasy Announces Resignation Last week,…

News
Oct 19, 2014

This Week in Student Privacy: 10/19

Interested in getting "This Week in Student Privacy" in your inbox? Sign up here. Future of Privacy Forum announces release of two new papers On October 15 the Future of…

News
Oct 14, 2014

This Week in Student Privacy: 10/14

Interested in getting "This Week in Student Privacy" in your inbox? Sign up here. Ed Tech Companies Sign Pledge to Protect Student Privacy Last week, “a coalition of ‘school…

News
Oct 7, 2014

This Week in Student Privacy: 10/7

Interested in getting "This Week in Student Privacy" in your inbox? Sign up here. This update was compiled by Hannah Offer. Hannah is a senior at the Crossroads School for Arts…

Sep 30, 2014

This Week in Student Privacy: 9/30

Interested in getting "This Week in Student Privacy" in your inbox? Sign up here. This update was compiled by Hannah Offer. Hannah is a senior at the Crossroads School for Arts…

News
Jun 3, 2014

New Report from the Student Privacy Initiative: A Snapshot of K-12 Cloud-Based Ed Tech & Student Privacy in Early 2014

The Berkman Center's Student Privacy Initiative is pleased to announce a new publication, Framing the Law & Policy Picture: A Snapshot of K-12 Cloud-Based Ed Tech & Student…

Event
Jun 3, 2014 @ 12:30 PM

Framing the Law & Policy Picture: A Snapshot of K-12 Cloud-Based Ed Tech & Student Privacy in Early 2014

Leah Plunkett, Alicia Solow-Niederman, and Urs Gasser

The Berkman Center’s Student Privacy Initiative team presents a snapshot of K-12 cloud-based ed tech and student privacy in early 2014 before turning to pragmatic law and policy…

Publication
Jun 2, 2014

Framing the Law & Policy Picture: A Snapshot of K-12 Cloud-Based Ed Tech & Student Privacy in Early 2014

This paper provides a snapshot of key aspects of a diverse—and heated—law, policy, and implementation debate that is taking place in the rapidly evolving cloud-based ed tech…

Jan 16, 2014

Student Privacy Initiative Announces Three New Publications

As part of its ongoing Student Privacy Initiative, the Berkman Center is excited to offer a number of related publications that synthesize diverse conversations, distill next…

Jan 15, 2014

Student Privacy and Cloud Computing at the District Level: Next Steps and Key Issues

This report offers recommended next steps and prioritized open issues in the K-12 educational technology (edtech) space, with a special emphasis on two topics: (1) law and policy…

Publication
Jan 15, 2014

Youth Perspectives on Tech in Schools: From Mobile Devices to Restrictions and Monitoring

This research brief, prepared by the Berkman Center’s Youth and Media project for the co-organized Berkman Center and Consortium for School Networking working meeting on student…

Publication
Jan 15, 2014

K-12 Edtech Cloud Service Inventory

Created for and informed by the co-organized Berkman Center and Consortium for School Networking working meeting on November 19, 2013, this document aims to provide individuals…

Nov 12, 2013

Student Privacy in the Cloud Computing Ecosystem: State of Play & Potential Paths Forward

This report draws from ongoing Student Privacy Initiative research as well as participant inputs from an April 2013 exploratory workshop, "Student Privacy in the Cloud Computing…


People 06

Team


Related Projects & Tools 02

Privacy Initiatives

The Berkman Klein Center has long been home to a number of cross-disciplinary initiatives that investigate privacy and privacy-relevant questions in the digitally networked…

Youth and Media

Youth and Media (YaM) encompasses an array of research, advocacy, and development initiatives around youth (age 12-18) and digital technology.