Slashdot Mirror
Student Financial Aid Database Being Misused
pin_gween writes "The Washington Post reports on the probable abuse of the National Student Loan Data System. The database was created in 1993 to help determine which students are eligible for financial aid. Students' Social Security numbers, e-mail addresses, phone numbers, birth dates, and loan balances are in the database. It contains 60 million student records and is covered by federal privacy laws. Advocates worry that businesses are trolling for marketing data they can use to bombard students with mass mailings or other solicitations. The department has spent over $650,000 in the past four years protecting the data. However, some senior education officials are advocating a temporary shutdown of access to the database until tighter security measures can be put in place."
Sorry, I don't mean to be a troll, but I think your plan is bad for the environment for no real good reason. Every time we do anything, even if it's for some sort of abstract version of revenge against the "man", we should ask if it will do harm to the world. In this case, I doubt companies that depend on mailing applications out will *ever* stop. On the other hand, the added weight of this mass mailing bomb will waste fuel. While you would be the lesser of two evils, you would still be evil.
Sorry for being so serious about it, I am sure you were only being half-serious