The Gates Foundation spent $100 million along with the Carnegie Corporation to create a massive database consisting of confidential information about students. The database will be created by Rupert Murdoch’s subsidiary Wireless Generation. It will go onto a “cloud” managed by amazon.com.
Several states and districts have agreed to turn over their student data. Last year, the U.S. Department of Education quietly changed the FERPA regulations so that the data could be released. According to this article, the data will be available to entrepreneurs to market stuff to children’s.
Here is one New York parent’s view:
“I have emailed and called [State Commissioner] John King’s office over 40 times the past month refusing to consent to allow the DOE to transfer my children’s personal information into InBloom to be bought and sold around the world so vendors get rich. King’s office refuses to allow parents to opt-out.
I consider InBloom Identity Theft. We need a class action law suit to protect students privacy.
Please see the extent of data that is being collected and entered to be sold without a guarantee of security. Even your billing address from credit cards can be entered along with birth weight, homework completions, medical reports for IEP’s, disabilities, discipline, and much more.
Reblogged this on Transparent Christina and commented:
Markell had signed our kids over to these folks too
Read post and see here…this is the data being selected and sold. Arne Duncan altered FERPA without congressional approval. I have written, emailed and called Esty, Murphy and Blumenthal. They claim they know nothing about this.
https://www.inbloom.org/sites/default/files/docs-developer-1.0.68-20130118/ch-data_model-enums.html#type-SexType”
There is something I have wanted to know. Are all children going to be put into the database, for instance private school children, magnet schools, charter schools, and public schools or is it just for charter and public schools?
Everything they have will be handed over. Private schools are often not collected directly, but indirectly collected via transcripts, test scores, special education, etc. The other types are all “public” schools.
I wish you didn’t have to ask to opt-out of this database. The default should be opt-out and you should have to ask to opt-in!
I totally agree with this. Opting out means that people who don’t know about it don’t get a chance to do so. They should not be able to release any information without signed consent of parents (for children) and educators (for themselves).
This is giving me knots in my stomach! As a teacher I am deeply concerned about the sharing of student information, and mine as well. My SSN, this is identity theft! Very scary. Sign me up for the class action suit!
Parents should refuse to give SSNs. Illegal immigrants don’t have them, I have seen many records with 000-00-0000 as the SSN, so it can be done. I didn’t read anything on there about teacher’s SSN.
I’m currently studying to be a nurse, and completed a course on HIPPA (medical privacy). In this course, I learned that third parties are required to ensure the confidentiality of medical information. The fines are up to $1.5 million PER VIOLATION! Why do we not hold our children’s educational information to this standard? Further, if medical conditions are leaked or hacked, that sounds like a HIPPA violation to me.
This whole things is disgusting, and shows how little we value our children. Adults are entitled to $1.5 million for medical info violation, our children… nothing, we’re not promising to keep the info secure.
I wish I could edit my reply. the last sentence second paragraph should have read “Further, if medical conditions are leaked or hacked from inBloom’s database, that sounds like a HIPPA violation to me.”
I’m so mad my fingers are getting ahead of my brain.
I was very concerned about my child’s SSN. After a few E-mails with an elected official, I learned parents in my state have opted out of giving SSN for years! I called my child’s school and had the SSN removed from the records.
Never give anyone or organization more information than legally required.
Wouldn’t it be wonderful to know the names of those individuals who voted to change the FERPA Laws that allow all of this insanity to go on ?? Accountability please.
Marge
See the names of the organizations at the end of this document:
Click to access 2011.05.13_FERPA%20Comments_Group%20Letter.pdf
Thank you for your response, but , I would like to know the names of legislators that voted for the change in FERPA so this insanity was made legal.
Marge
I hope Sheila or Diane will weigh in, but I don’t think there was a vote. Arne slipped it into the RTTT changes when they ended NCLB, which also wasn’t voted on by Congress. So I don’t think there was a vote. I have called, emailed and written to my two senators and one congressman and their staff has no idea what I am talking about.
Sheila, can you help?
Looks like we are going back to that crook Duncan once again which also means Obama in reality as Duncan is controlled by Obama and his puppet masters.
Marge,
Let’s hunt them down and lay it back on them. Let’s turn the light on the cockroaches and make them run for cover. This is all they understand, unfortunately. The question is “Do we want to win or just blow smoke.” It takes talk and action directed like a laser beam. Never let them blur your beam or as anyone who has ever seen one work it will not cut.
Also who is going to be responsible for putting this information into the computer, Is the teacher or is someone going to be hired to do it? It’s not like the teacher doesn’t have enough to do as it is.
They already get this data from multiple sources. Attendence, grades, discipline, etc might be teacher data. Now anyone can look you and your kids up. Of course if its wrong, too bad, so sad. Better luck getting employed in your next life.
kb, all the information is already in computers through ARIS. That was the first step. ARIS will become inbloom and all the data will automatically transfer. That, at least, is what I have been told.
Here we go again. At the beginning of NCLB and RttT, teachers and parents were fairly oblivious. Very few people understood the corporate forces that were operating behind the scenes, planning for their own profit. At this point in the ‘education deform’ journey, we are all much better versed in the tragic nature of education exploitation. InBloom needs to be stopped now, not later, after it is already in place on the national level. How does a class action suit get started? That is where the conversation needs to go. Does anyone have concrete legal advice?
Won’t get fooled again? Or will we?
And again no mention of Randi Weingarten being on inBloom’s Advisory Board???
I just don’t understand why she gets a pass on this as well???
inBloom is not selling student information. The ‘theft’ is the use of student data to make money. Agree the cloud isn’t secure & data could be used for-profit.
Lots of ugly things going on but inBloom isn’t selling the data.
Excellent presentation of data collected in the link provided in Diane’s post.
“…inBloom isn’t selling the data.”
Yet. That we know of.
I remember when the telephone company used to claim they didn’t sell your phone number. I moved into an attic apartment in a single-family home where the landlord already had the gas and electric hooked up in his name and he said there was no big rush getting them transferred to mine. But there was no phone service so that was the first thing I hooked up. Within 24 hours I was getting deluged with calls for moving services, home repair, gardening and landscaping services – all the sorts of things that a new homeowner might need. Just coincidence, I’m sure.
Sheila, but clarify something for me.
You say inbloom isn’t selling data, but Wireless Generation/Amplify couldn’t exist without inbloom, so the non profit status for inbloom doesn’t really matter.
Klein and Murdoch need inbloom to sell their tablet, yes?
Also, do you know why they changed the name from SLC to inbloom?
There is no way they are not selling that data in one way or another. This is like another of those offshore havens. We are not doing it but we are. Lie, lie, lie is all they know what to do. Aren’t they a for profit company? If so, how do they make money without revenue? Can any accountant figure that one out without flim-flam of some kind? I don’t think so. Profit is the difference between all revenue and expenses. It is as simple as that. This issue has the posability of being a wedge in their P.R. and legal game.
Hello — Today on the Good Morning Show it was reported that 10 girl old girls’ pictures have been accessed and placed on a Cyber- Beauty Contest judged by their peers. How insane!! I would absolutely hate for any of the pictures of children in my school be accessed for salacious purposes. This is totally out of hand. It is disgusting and wrong. Parents need to step up and become aware.
Marge
How long will the public continue to fall for this “Doublespeak?” It is all for money and taking away our privacy and civil and human rights. We are now thinking on legal and political avenues to take with this serious situation. It is on our plate.
Hello — I just received an email from a parent that the NY State Ed Department is rescinding the refusal code (96) as cited in their SIRS manual. She was planning on Opting her child Out. Any suggestions?
Marge
School Gal, the whole scenario is perverse. These people are like mutants from a radioactive disaster . . . Good guys gone bad, bad guys gone wild, and neutral guys staying neutral and indifferent.
These are sinister times.
At least Randi gave a personal check of $20 to NPE.
Can her hypocrisy by being on inBloom’s board get any worse?
The actions of Rhee, Duncan, Gates cannot be the only ones that deserve a post like this when Randi is also a big part of this movement. I think that should garner some reflection that doesn’t involve mind reading because what “a person may be thinking” and what a person actually does is not the same. All I can say is that I am extremely disappointed and expected truth, not omissions.
I have been looking for and may have found an attorney who successfully works on class-action lawsuits. Under the CCSS umbrella (I consider inBloom under the umbrella) I am seeking legal opinion as to whether this could be an anti-trust scenario. I think it’s even more than anti-trust.
This is simply outrageous!! The data that can be obtained through the data warehouse is simply out of control. Where is the accountability at the State Education Department? Should Dr. King’s evaluation and continued employment be based upon his responding to phone calls in a timely fashion? Parents have reason to be concerned about the data that is being shared.
Marge
Shelia, Please post your site or contact information. As a parent, I have called a few lawyers already trying to fight against InBloom stealing my children’s personal information.. Parents are desperate to find legal support against InBloom.
Thank you!
Hateinbloom —- Parent Groups need the names of attorneys who are willing to pursue law suits also. Thank you for asking for the information. I have a question— school districts will be told to enter data in to a data warehouse which is usually overseen by a local BOCES. When these lawsuits start , who is libel?? Is it the school district for following the directive of the Commissioner of Education? Is it the State Ed Department that is libel? Is the Federal Government (Homeland Secutity) libel? Or all of the above?
Marge
How about hitting them politically and legally through a class action suit. The only answer is to cause them “Pain.” They understand nothing else. They are sociopaths by defination. If the data is being sold we think we have a plan of action. We are very active politically with more connections than most can imagine.
The more I think about all of this data. the sicker I become. I worry that photos of school children will be accessed and may end up on questionable websites.
We need to stand up and protect the children.
Marge
Marge, this is what we are talking about. These people are low lifes for wanting to do this to children. They are not adults. That is why we are asking if the data is being sold by the school system at the local, county and state level to InBloom. If so we think we have an action that will work to throw a wrench in their works. We are daily in the legislative process and have knowledge of how it works that few have. We know the Machavellian process and how to counter it if possible. Politics is the Art of the Possible. It is a given that InBloom will sell the information. They are a for profit organization. They will rape anyone for money no matter the cost to the others.
And it appears from the enumeration types, that this not only is this the selling of STUDENT data, but TEACHER data as well!
Bingo….they will track all of us! And I don’t believe Congress is even aware. I am writing and calling this week AGAIN.
Of course Congress is aware. They’re just bought off. One of the companies involved is Amazon. Maybe if millions of people closed their accounts there, it would make a difference.
If we all close our Amazon accounts that would speak volumes. Barnes & Nobles’ Nook has been bought by Pearson. The more I investigate the more entanglements I discover.
Marge
Susan, you just stated the facts of life. They are in collusion and are cheaply bought off. It is amazing how little you need to spend to get what you want. In the business model it is called “A Part of the Cost of Doing Business and Operation.” We are a commodity to be bought and sold. The only other thing that works on politicians if they will not listen to reason is FEAR. FEAR of not being reelected by embaresment or whatever. They understand psychological warfare on them. It is easy for them to do it to us but they cannot stand the same techniques being used on them.
Posted by mistake in reply to school girl. sorry. Meant as a comment.
inBloom is not selling student information. The ‘theft’ is the use of student data to make money. Agree the cloud isn’t secure & data could be used for-profit.
Lots of ugly things going on but inBloom isn’t selling the data.
Excellent presentation of data collected in the link provided in Diane’s post.
not selling it yet.
We at CORE-CA need to know if they are selling this information. Anyone who knows please post. We will agressively pursue. We discussed this already and are ready to make a move politically if so. We are looking at legal avenues and if they are selling it there is a plan.
IMPORTANT!
Does anyone know of a generic letter for a parent to give a district to request that we want to 1) opt-out of ALL and ANY in-school surveys and non-academic data collection and 2) request that no data be shared with anyone outside of the district? Has anyone heard of this being done or working? I would gladly distribute in my districts. Parents have no idea what is taking place!
Our district wants to give personality tests and learning style tests. Yes, while this gives our students some useful information (maybe??) it also allows the school to collect 50-100 social and emotional data points/questions and answers about our children as well as the academic data they already have. With FERPA and the Statewide Databases that will talk to the Federal Databases, this is scary stuff!
I will be posting a summary of the US Department of Education’s complicity in the weakening of federal privacy rights for student data. The key organization that defends privacy rights is the Electronic Privacy Information Center, which is suing the US DOE for weakening FERPA (the relevant statute) in December 2011.
Signed by:
Alliance for Excellent Education
American Institutes for Research
Association for Career and Technical Education
College Summit
Council of Chief State School Officers
Data Quality Campaign
Houde Consulting Group, LLC
Education Trust
International Association for K-12 Online Learning
Knowledge Alliance
NASSP
National Association of State Boards of Education
National Association of State Directors of Career Technical Education Consortium National Association of System Heads
National Center for Higher Education Management Systems
National Council on Teacher Quality
National Math & Science Initiative
National Skills Coalition
State Higher Education Executive Officers
Western Interstate Commission
Read this DQC document. These are comments they submitted to US ED supporting the changes in FERPA.
Click to access 2011.05.13_FERPA%20Comments_Group%20Letter.pdf
InBloom is engaged in not just identity theft; it is a key player in democracy theft.
Especially, considering these are minor children, how can this not be identity theft without the parents permission. This is a U.S. Constitutional issue and a civil rights issue. What ever happened to privacy. As Ben Franklin said “When you give up liverty for freedom, you end up with neither.” 9-11 was planned for just this purpose and it working well because this public is dumb as they get and have no concern for themselves or their children. There is no other way this could happen. We can thank Bill Clinton for eliminating a “Free Press.” and our financial ruin by legislation he signed and Obama has put on steroids.
The more I think about this the more indignant I become. This is just immoral. We should know if this data warehouse will contain the data of: All elected officials– governors , senators; the Vice President, the President; and all the Commissioners in the State Education Departments ; and the Secretary of Education — Arne. It’s only fair that:No Child’s Data Should Be Left Behind!!!
Marge
Obama has been totally corrupt and in bed with the corporatist privatizers since at least 1995. Duncan the same since at least when he became CEO, superintendent, of Chicago. So what else do you expect. All you have to do is take an honest, not ideological, look at who these people are including Michelle Obama as she made her money working for Daley privatizing Chicago Schools making $132,000/year and was one of what they called the $100,000 Club. The problem is that the U.S. public is blind and does not like to deal with facts such as the latest polling showed that about 45% of the public believes that the world is only 5-10,000 years old.
A direct result of the federal government dumbing down its citizenry and the people allowing it to happen by falling for it . . . .
I wish you could embed an image onto your page. i want to post your blog to my “education Matters” page on Pinterest, but it will not let me because “there is no image on the page.”
We cannot take a picture of a child in my school without written parent permission yet personal data/information is going to be sent to inBloom without parent consent and John King is saying parents can’t opt out? What is wrong with him? All this reform/privatization craziness makes me feel like I’m living in the bizarro world.
Let’s not forget that Murdoch used information obtained from phone hacking and police bribery in pursuit of publishing stories. Investigations from 2005 to 2007 concluded that the paper’s phone hacking activities were limited to celebrities, politicians, and members of the British Royal Family. In 2011, it was revealed that the phones of murdered schoolgirl Milly Dowler , relatives of deceased British soldiers and victims of the 7/7 London bombings were also accessed. People like Murdoch have no moral compass. Parents, teachers and administrators need to boycott the advertisers in all Murdoch publications until he stops stealing children’s data!!! Unite!!! Boycott!!
Marge
See photo here…this is very scary:
I have a phone call into Sol Stern from the MANHATTAN INSTITUTE. He wrote recently states should be able to OPT-OUT. I want to hear how he thinks that could happen.
can the ACLU become involved here?
I called them a couple of weeks ago. The person I spoke with said they were busy with DOMA.
The ACLU has participated in webinars & expressed concern in the comments to US ED FERPA rule change:
Click to access ACLU_Comments_on_Changes_to_the_Family_Educational_Rights_and_Privacy_Act_FERPA.pdf
I’m going to find a link to the DQC webinar. Reidenberg, Calabrese. Bob Gellman & I think Winnick are on the panel. Reidenberg cautions about future/inevitable lawsuits. Reidenberg did the 50 state study of longitudinal databases in 2009. Now, he’s looking at 50 states & the cloud.
This week I spent 4 days working on an APPR binder, every bone in my body was rebelling against this. This was a lot of mindless busy work that was time consuming. It did not add to my teaching skills nor did it enlighten me about my teaching. What a sad time to be a teacher.
To the nextlevel2000, see this site:
Parents beware! Nine states are planning to share your child’s confidential information with private corporations.
http://nycpublicschoolparents.blogspot.com/2013/03/my-response-to-inblooms-attorney.html
And this fact sheet:
Nine “pilot” states have agreed to share confidential student and teacher data with a Gates-funded organization called the “Shared Learning Collaborative” or SLC, which has now spun off as a separate corporation called inBloom Inc.
• The states and districts in Phase I include New York (NYC student data), North Carolina (Guilford Co.), Colorado (Jefferson Co.), Illinois (Unit 5 Normal and District 87 Bloomington) and Massachusetts (Everett) and Louisiana (state-wide). Phase II states include Delaware, Georgia, and Kentucky, which intend to start piloting the system in 2013.
• This confidential data includes personally identifiable information, including student names, grades, test scores, disciplinary and attendance records, and mostly likely race or ethnicity, free lunch & special education status as well.
Click to access National-Fact-sheet-on-privacy-issue-2.7.13.pdf
TheNextlevel2000..see sample letter here, scroll down:
http://www.classsizematters.org/parents-beware-new-york-state-is-planning-to-share-your-child’s-confidential-information-with-private-corporations/
When Michelle Rhee said that children are our most important assets, she was for once telling the truth (in the sense that she and her ilk honestly see children in that light), and in any business model, assets must be capable of being monetized.
As despicable as this is, no one should be surprised, since it is embedded in the very language these people use to describe education: schools are asset portfolios to be managed, teachers are factors of production who “add value” to the products being sold to customers (that would be students and businesses, respectively; look up the definition of “value added” if you think I’m kidding), whose costs are to be minimized, and children are assets to be monetized.
When these people say, “It’s all about the children,” in their own perverse way, they are being truthful: social engineering aside, it’s all about producing and extracting wealth from them.
Michael Fiorillo: I much appreciate your postings.
You are very well able to speak for yourself but [if you will allow me the presumption] let me slightly reword a bit of what you wrote.
Michelle Rhee “and her ilk” [as you put it] see OTHER PEOPLE’S CHILDREN as “assets” for THEIR OWN CHILDREN. While the well-connected and comfortable few [along with a sliver of the population they consider the ‘deserving poor’] attend the kinds of schools that prepare them for being the ‘leaders’ and ‘managers’ and ‘innovators’ of the future, the vast majority of children will attend compliance centers where rudimentary skills and deference to ‘the better sort of folk’ are taught. The self-styled education reformers have a simple formula: USkids=people, THEMkids=assets. [With all apologies to KrazyMathLady for such a lame faux-math format.]
That is, I keep thinking of the different choices the leading charterites/privatizers make for their children that are so at odds for the ever narrowing range of less-desirable choices that they want to mandate for ‘those kids.’ And it’s not just something external. When you demonstrate by word and deed that this kid is a worthy ‘striver’ and those kids are hopeless ‘failures’ the recipients of the doled-out beneficence or contempt internalize the treatment meted out to them. Not all—there’s always a rebel or two in every bunch—but most will spend their whole lives either admiring their ‘obviously’ innate goodness or despising their own ‘obviously’ innate worthlessness.
The dream of the edubullies is our nightmare.
Again, thank you so much for all your postings here and on other blogs.
🙂
Here is an ACLU letter to the Massachusetts Board of Elementary and Secondary Education requesting that they stop turning over student and TEACHER records to corporations. Please take a minute to read. I took this from Schools Matter blog. I do not think the letter goes far enough in it’s demands, but it is a start. Maybe this needs to be done on a state by state basis?
It’s time to get mad.
http://www.schoolsmatter.info/2013/02/stopping-ma-dese-from-turning-over.html
Governor Deval Patrick of MA is on the board of Achieve, a company that plans to benefit from longitudinal data collection systems. He needs to be voted out. I wonder if he’s receiving money from this company to serve on its board.
http://www.achieve.org/P-20-data-systems
http://www.achieve.org/our-board-directors
As a parent of children in a pilot district in CO, I am outraged our Superintendent Dr. Cindy Stevenson failed to notify parents about how and when our children’s data will be given to inBloom and third-party corporations without parental consent. Our district CIO, Greg Mortimer, in a presentation to the JeffCo Board of Education to defend inBloom stated, “A concern is raised here about News Corporation, ah, owned by the evil Rupert Murdoch. I’m concerned about what he does as well. He owns, they own, Wireless Generation and Wireless Generation built part of the [inBloom] technology services.” And yet he went on to say he feels comfortable handing over student data to Murdoch – a corporate figurehead of questionable legal integrity.
Currently, inBloom is being piloted in a handful of districts/states. The goal of the project is to collect personally identifiable confidential data on every child in the nation from pre-K to grade 12. We must stop this before it gains momentum.
With regard to the safety and security of this data store, I’ve been told on multiple occasions by JeffCo officials they have the “best and brightest” in data security working on this project. Do they know the U.S. Department of Education website was taken down last week due to hacker activity?
Data stored in cloud environments is vulnerable; data in transmission is vulnerable; data handled by inept IT administrators is vulnerable. inBloom is vulnerable and our children are at risk.
Please support parents in pilot districts and help us stop inBloom before your schools sign secret contracts giving away your rights to protect your children.
https://sites.google.com/site/schoolbelongstothechildren/
Rachael, the Colorado State Board of Education will be holding hearings on this. Be sure to make your views known.
Thank you for the heads-up, Dr. Ravitch. I will be there.
Seems to me releasing information on special education students is a violation under federal mandates and the school could be taken to court under due process.
Ronee, we are a lawless country. All the work you and others have done for the last 40-50 years for special ed students is going out the door as a result of this. RTI is one example and this is another one. We are a cruel heartless country. If we are exceptional it is in stupidity and self-destruction. All you have to do is look at what we are doing to ourselves and to others. It is not in our or their best interests unless you are one of the 1/10 of 1/10 of 1% as they are really the ones in this game not the 1%. 1% starts at $300,000/yr. and that is not what is now a “Player”, as they are called. However, there are signs that the game is now starting to go against them. One thing they cannot stand is direct confrontation with documented facts and attitude. Anyone who has watched me in public dealing with the “Players” understands this. Just watch Karen Lewis and what she says and how she says it and always with the facts in hand.
Sadly, George, you are right and those of us who have been crying in the wind for the last thirty years have gotten old and disgusted.
I hope folks are taking in the information and research you have
been so generous to share with everyone.
The trampling of law and disrespect for civility, society, and concern for children was for a long time cloaked behind the plans of these
arrogant and greed ridden charlatans, but now it is screaming in our
faces and been put into play.
Horrifying!!!!
Any help for New Yorkers? We only have days left……I don’t even let my kids go on social media or have emails for crying out loud.
I saw on the NYSDOE website a long explanation how our children’s data will be used for a lot of things, not sure they can guarantee it won’t be used for marketing purposes.
Can I just write a letter to DOE saying you may not forward any of my child’s information to anyone outside the NYSDOE??????
Marge, Murdoch did this to a friend of mine who used to live in England had a major T.V. career with their own shows and destroyed it. They moved to the U.S. and is a major parent student advocate here in California. Recently, they found out they are on that list and Murdoch is going to be paying a big a large amount of money as a result. After all, he does have deep pockets. These people have no morals or ethics of any kind. He who dies with the most toys wins is their motto.
Why do they need the ADRESS where the teacher LIVES??? Are you kidding me??? What does that have to do with the kids?
When I got my first teaching job, I gave the address of my parents’ house, since I had not moved out yet. After I moved, I decided not to change the address since some nutcase demanded the names, addresses, phone numbers, and salary/benefit infomation of every teacher. Apparently, parents in FL are entitled to know where I live. Well, I protect myself by lying! Welcome to America…home of the free??????
Maximizing the Power of Education Data While Protecting the Privacy, Security, and Confidentiality of Student Information, Archived Video
Organizations:
Date: 04/2011
Description:
Archived video of national event discussing critical issues related to protecting the privacy, security and confidentiality of student data, developments in state and federal policy, best practices and emerging solutions, and remaining challenges.
Panelists included:
Christopher Calabrese, Legislative Counsel, American Civil Liberties Union
Robert Gellman, Privacy and Information Policy Consultant
Kathy Gosa, Information Technology Team Director, Kansas Department of Education
Don Houde, former Chief Information and Technology Officer, Arizona Department of Education
Joel R. Reidenberg, Professor of Law and Founding Academic Director of Center on Law and Information Policy
Alice Seagren, former Commissioner, Minnesota Department of Education
Kathleen Styles, Chief Privacy Officer, U.S. Department of Education
Gary West, Strategic Initiative Director for Information Systems and Research, Council of Chief State School Officers
Steve Winnick, Partner, EducationCounsel, LLC
http://www.capitolconnection.net/capcon/dataqualitycampaign/042811/DQC042811launch.htm
How Data Can be Used to Inform Educational Outcomes” – Statement of Joel R. Reidenberg
House Committee on Education and Labor hearing, “
Click to access Reidenberg_Congressional_Testimony.pdf
[The centralization of children’s information at the state level increases the risks
and scope of loss from security incidents. The centralization means that data security
breaches will be on a larger scale than if data were held solely at the local level. For
example, according to the Congressional Research Service up to 1.4 million residents of
Colorado had their names, social security numbers and birth dates compromised when a
database from the state department of human services was stolen from a private
contractor in Texas.2
It is inevitable that security of the children’s information will be compromised.
The experiences in the financial services sector that have been revealed by data security
breach notification laws reflect the magnitude of this risk.]
Sheila
Thank you for searching and positng today. I am trying to keep up with you. You are a wonder.
Thanks, Linda. I have been looking at this since September, 2006. More than 7.5 years.
I am glad student privacy has gone mainstream & parents are becoming aware. Politicians will never do anything about the problem. The lobby for data keeps them in office.
It has to be parents & the public.
DQC ARCHIVED EVENTS; http://www.dataqualitycampaign.org/events/past DCQ seems to be for transparency in data snatching.
The NRA refuses to support gun registration because it would lead to owner identification. But it’s OK for private corporations (and gun owners) to know all about our public school children and their families!!!???
Guns over kids…great…WTF?
The NY legislature will probably spend the remaining (approximately 30) days of session talking about Cuomo’s gun bill. They won’t even think about student privacy.
http://www.tulsaworld.com/article.aspx/Students_records_put_on_website_after_appeal/20120607_19_a1_hoursa493753
“Hours after the State Board of Education deliberated behind closed doors over seven students’ appeals for exemptions from high-stakes testing requirements, state officials posted the private educational records of each of those students on the state website…”
http://epic.org/apa/ferpa/default.html#legal documents
We talked about that breach for days on twitter. Horrific. I saw what they posted. Then they redacted but were sloppy & ID numbers & more remained posted.
What happened with that? You had a link to EPIC. Is the breach discussed?
Alliance for Excellent Education
American Institutes for Research
Association for Career and Technical Education
College Summit
Council of Chief State School Officers
Data Quality Campaign
Houde Consulting Group, LLC
Education Trust
International Association for K-12 Online Learning
Knowledge Alliance
NASSP
National Association of State Boards of Education
National Association of State Directors of Career Technical Education Consortium
National Association of System Heads
National Center for Higher Education Management Systems
National Council on Teacher Quality
National Math & Science Initiative
National Skills Coalition
State Higher Education Executive Officers
Western Interstate Commission for Higher Education
This is the list from the document linked by a commenter. I read the entire thing and look at these names. They are all controlled by the privatizer corporatizers. Not one real civil rights group. I am the Director of Policy for CORE-CA. We do not take theri money so we call call things as we see them. Thank you commenter for this important letter from 2011 on this subject. All need to read this letter and at these signers to the letter.
Politicians and policy makers in DC, like Arne Duncan, who may have their kids in public schools, are likely to have them enrolled in suburban Virginia schools, like Arne’s are, but that state withdrew from RTTT due to the Common Core. Does this mean that Arne’s and other politicians children were not put at-risk when Arne changed the FERPA regulations, so data on them won’t be compiled and shared by InBloom et al?
Is it possible that the VA governor and education officials were forewarned regarding future data collection and distribution policies that other states were not told about?
Is this two faced and hypocritical or what? What else would I expect out of Duncan with what I know about him. Good for him and his kids and no one else’s in his world.
[Is it possible that the VA governor and education officials were forewarned regarding future data collection and distribution policies that other states were not told about?]
Interesting observation or fact.
I will be more than happy to boycott ANY company that is working against the interests of CHILDREN. Walmart/Sam’s Club is already on my list. I will not buy from Amazon either. I will be keeping a file and add as necessary. The one thing I can control is where and how I choose to spend my few $$$.
Jaded– I too , will stop my buying through Amazon. I feel sickened that that company will analyze data and perhaps recommend that parents is children with special needs buy this book and this product etc. I always marveled at the book recommendations that were made to me by Amazon, and must confess that their marketing technique worked on me. I vow to stop using Amazon and will not shop at Walmart or Sam’s Club. I will put my money where my mouth is!!
Marge
I never use any of those companies. First I buy with cash. No trace of anything. Cash is King.
Marge, these companies make me feel sick as well. There are others. I will not shop at Toys R Us either. Part owner is Bain. Why we should keep each other informed:) George has the best advice – cash only! Thanks. I learn more each day from the articles as well as the wonderful comments. Keep doing what you are doing!!
So how does inBloom obtain this information? Are the states compensated for this information?
states will be paying inBloom soon to take this info. In theory they will be offering “services” back to states and access to the data to their vendors/partners. Its a scam to sell software and support back to states. Privatizers want to eliminate any internal reporting capacity and data gathering for SEAs.
This is all but complete in Louisiana.
Crazy Crawfish are the schools selling that data is our question.
Sounds like he’s saying that they have to PAY InBloom to TAKE the data.
That’s unbelievable. It’s like making people pay data miners and BOTS to take private information off our computers so that vendors can flood our email with advertising spam. What a racket. It’s hard to fathom that this is legal.
If they are going to pay them we might have a good legal angle.
George– I have had major issues after having read that the Libyan dictatorship has made billions of dollars investing in Pearson Publishing the company that is supplying the USA with all of the standardized high stakes tests.
I just happened to be watching the Good Morning show . Beyonce & Jay-Z. are vacationing in Cuba. There are issues that they are spending money in a murderous country. I see parallels to using American dollars in the billions to support a company that allowed Libya to make billions on the backs of children. Oh my God are we all going insane?? Parents should Opt out of Testing in out rage of Libya amassing a fortune while we have not yet begun to touch the tip of the poverty iceberg in our country. Shame on our political and so called education leaders!! I am disgusted.
Marge
SEAs, state agencies, not schools, are giving the data away. The reason some are doing it quicker than others is they are purportedly getting a “discount” on services they plan to purchase from inBloom and related vendors. Eventually there will be fees on everything that will just add and add and addd. For starters there is a storage fee coming. Then there will report fees, licensing fees, franchise fees, research fees, fees for altering data, access fees for viewing your own data, fee fees because someone needs to make a bottom line. Etc. These vendors will offer more “discounts” in exchange for more data, free/unfettered use of the data for non-educational purposes. These vendors have already recruited folks who helped them push through these FERPA changes, that will continue. So you should expect our eduational leaders to make money indrectly whent hey are hired by inBloom, Amplify, Ed-fi, and others at exhorbitant rates.
Since InBloom is collecting email data, I would assume they intend to share children’s email addresses with vendors, who will then flood their kid’s email accounts with advertising spam. If so, that’s unethical at best.
Despite opt-out requirements, I get about 100 spam emails per day from companies that I cannot opt-out of, because there is no opt-out option provided, or because opting out is a very convoluted process that I’ve not succeeded at, or because the links they provide are just too risky to click..And, because my email was captured by those marketers, they shared it with other companies, too, so I get some rather abhorrent X rated stuff.
How could anyone consider this to be safe and legal for children?
Other Spaces– Eloquently said!!!
Marge
The real question is “are school districts, county offices of education or the state selling the information to InBloom?” This is the question we want to know from those who know to save time and effort looking for this information so we can spend our effort on that side of the question.
where the heck is the ACLU on this???? oddly silent.
This inBloom Online Privacy Statement (“Privacy Statement”) is designed to help you understand generally how the site located at inBloom.org and other hostnames within the same domain (the “Site”) collects certain information about its users and how it uses (including disclosures) that information. In particular, this Privacy Statement applies to information that personally identifies you (other than publicly available information) (“Personal Information”) collected on the Site, or where indicated, other information you provide to us. The Site is provided by inBloom, Inc. (“inBloom,” “we,” “us,” etc.) as part of the inBloom web-based software system (the “Service”). You may contact inBloom at the Address for Legal Notices below.
Also very upset that this is being pushed through without parental consent or notification that FERPA laws have been changed to accommodate the release of our children’s most personal information! I have also contacted the SED without any questions being answered, and hung up on as well. Contacted my assemblyman’s office and they are looking into this as well as opt out options. It amazes me that the general public has been kept in the dark about this!
This is unbelievable! This needs to get national attention. I am going to contact my senators.