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."

Comments

Re:My stragegy for stopping the junk mail...

[dsanfte]

Do you think by doing this, as a single person, you will make a difference? Let me tell you, contrary to what motivational speakers and children's television stars would have told you as a child, a single person does not make a difference by themselves.

Single persons make a difference by getting other, larger groups of many persons to follow them. You are not doing this.

What you are doing, is wasting your time. Feel free to keep doing so, as it hurts no one but yourself, but have no delusions about saving the world from anyone.