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$100 Million Student Database Worries Parents
asjk writes "The controversial database includes millions of children and documents their names, addresses, disabilities other statistics and demographics. Federal law allows for the files to be shared with private companies. From the article: 'In operation just three months, the database already holds files on millions of children identified by name, address and sometimes social security number. Learning disabilities are documented, test scores recorded, attendance noted. In some cases, the database tracks student hobbies, career goals, attitudes toward school - even homework completion. Local education officials retain legal control over their students' information. But federal law allows them to share files in their portion of the database with private companies selling educational products and services."
permanent record. I thought it was a bluff!
I, for one, will be naming my future son Robert'); DROP TABLE Students;-- .
Apparently none of these parents have heard of Facebook.
Whatever the situation is, it sure seems like a huge moral hazard for local school administrators. They have an ethical obligation to protect children's data, but they have a self-interest in successful careers, which can be judged by how much money they bring into the district.
My guess is that money and status trumps children's privacy, even among the people you'd presume "think of the children."
... don't build a database of ruin.
So yes, those parents are right to be worried.
The summary is more scare mongering.
The database is designed to be run by an non-profit and will give the school administrators a free service, may be pay in the future, where the administrators can enter the information of the their students. The original cost of this was done by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundatation.
The database can then produce reports for the school and be used for tracking the status of the student.
The thing about the federal law allowing it is fear mongering. Federal law does not prevent it provided the school officials allow it; if the school officials did not allow the use of the system then it would be illegal.
Companies are allowed limited access to the data and only at a high level if they are providing services and teaching material. So a company could have a product that is aimed at students doing poor in math but high in science and they would be able to identify that a school has such students and tell the school about their product.
Unless they have an insanely awesome security team and very rigorous employee screening, this will not end well.
The smarter way to handle it would be to replace personal information with UIDs. School districts alone can map UIDs to actual students. It'd be relatively trivial to implement, on either side. Sure, if someone crouched the numbers hard enough, they might be able to use analysis to collate the data to individuals. But that'd be enough to keep random stalkers, pedos, abusive parent with a restraining order against them, etc at bay.
If I was the non-profit running the DB, I'd be strongly pushing for something like that to absolve me of the liability and risk. Less persistent threats if the data is only useful to the student, school and statistics folks. The data, especially anonymized, would be VERY useful for curriculum research and development.
What kind of country allows this kind of information to be tracked "en masse", much less sells it to private companies? It reminds me of the credit-rating agencies:P private companies that somehow are magically authorized to suck up all of your financial information and sell it. At least the US finally added the ability for you to "freeze" your credit data. That's the wrong way around - they ought to have to actively ask for permission, but it's better than nothing.
Now your kids need to be able to "freeze" their school data. Worse, the US is continually trying to force its lack of privacy on the rest of the world, most recently with FATCA.
It's a crying shame that the US Constitution forgot to list privacy as a basic right to be guaranteed by the government, right next to life and liberty. Failing that, you guys really need to get some privacy laws on the books!
Enjoy life! This is not a dress rehearsal.
Federal law allows for the files to be shared with private companies
Federal law - read as Congress person was bri...lobbied into making it legal for big corps to mine children's data.
The people you should be pissed at are in DC. Punish them by voting them out of office.
I'd suggest we look back on the track record of such databases.
I won't go and track down the links (There's a link somewhere to the famous HBR "Database of Ruin" article, and that has a number of good links).
However, when you have potential for profit and money, you have almost certain abuses.
When you have people (humans), administering these types of databases, you have certain (100%) abuses. There are a number of documented cases of cops abusing DMV and arrest report DBs for purposes of harassment, stalking and revenge.
There are "grey" private detectives that are called "skip tracers." If you want to find out more, check out this book, called "How to Disappear."
This database WILL be misused. It may come back to haunt folks in thirty years.
I was able to rack up a pretty significant juvenile record, way back in the "paper era." I'm real glad that was never tracked, although I'll bet it would bubble to the surface if I ever wanted to work for the NSA.
The database is a joint project of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, which provided most of the funding, the Carnegie Corporation of New York and school officials from several states.
All it looks like to me is a $100M SQL Server project for Microsoft, secured by the former CEO for his friends back at the home office.
Acts 17:28, "For in Him we live, and move, and have our being."
You missed a key point regarding the word "abuse". It all sounds legit until you ponder the security issues and how easy it could be to gain access to the database--even legitimately. e.g., I'm writing an app to tutor math students. In fact, I just spent 10 minutes creating an introduction to Algebra, so I'm legit, now please provide access to the database.
Real security has been a joke in my kids' school system. It is hardly fear-mongering to extrapolate what that means for the database described in the article.
attitudes toward school - even homework completion
I'm confused on what this point has to do with the student. I never liked school growing up, I didn't like my teachers and I didn't like doing homework, yet I just graduated with my SECOND engineering degree. I'm pointing this out because what is going to happen from this database is private company's will see that Billy doesn't like going to school and assume incorrectly that Billy wont be a good employee when he grows up.
This database is effectively a big profiling system that is designed to trap kids who don't feel that achieving is the most important thing in the world. How a kid feels about school really doesn't place any bearing on how they do in life overall, a kid that hates school can become an engineer well kids that love school end up drug addicts ( The "school lovers" I knew ). This database will not help kids in the long run, it will be used as a tool to track, record and hinder kids into adult hood, all because this database will track what Billy thinks of school and his teachers.
OK, this is like saying "everyone who posts on /. are worthless pieces of shiat" just because of the few boneheads like yourself who make wild sweeping assertions based on too little data. This database is clearly a serious problem that needs to be handled much more carefully than it probably is, but I know and have worked with a lot of these "local school administrators" you think so little of and most of them are underpaid, overworked, and care deeply about the children in their care. Often they care more than some of the parents involved. As someone else points out, the laws in this case come from the Bozoids in DC. That's where the real problem lies.
There's no longer such a thing as a childhood. Anything you do or say practically from birth will be recorded and used against you. Have a bad year in grade school and some one will bring it up in your thirties when you apply for a job. A childhood prank and suddenly you are seen as a risky hire. It's already happening with social media as others are pointing out but imagine your whole school record available to employers and credit agencies? Even your criminal record is sealed when you turn 18 for a reason. One childhood mistake shouldn't ruin a life but they seem to have found a way. Perfect people will succeed, the rich as well since money can hide many sins, but the rest of us need to start worrying.
Isn't it neat when other people get to decide if they want to share YOUR personal data?
bickerdyke
{shrug} depends on your definition of "win". For us, rampant drug use, chronic bullying, and overemphasis on sports at the expense of academics were all important reasons to homeschool our hatchlings. So from my point of view, this news is indeed *another* win.
Any time a person needs permission from the government for any activity, including homeschooling, and such permission is denied for whatever reason, it becomes effectively illegal to do that particular activity, including homeschooling. In Sweden and in other countries, permission is required from a government official. If this permission is denied, there is no appeal in many places. You can look at the article here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homeschooling_international_status_and_statistics
A sufficiently advanced simulation is indistinguishable from reality.
Also that gets into Gattaca grade problems because data "wants to be abused!" (To abuse a phrase!) So what's stopping insurance companies from playing games with it as well as employers?
My first Journal Entry ever, in 8 years! http://slashdot.org/journal/365947/aphelion-scifi-fantasy-horror-poetry-webzine
How many teachers do you know that have taught even a single subject well? Many of my math teachers in public school held history, english or other liberal arts degrees. I never once had a science teacher with a degree in that field. Your false assumptions or teacher's superiority is baseless. Considering that most teachers teach straight from the book, frequently just reading it aloud, parental teaching, at a one on one level could easily be far more productive than the current 30:1 rates, even if the primary tool is the same book, considering that a parent would have more time available to answer questions and ensure comprehension.
Watch for Penguins, they eat Apples and throw rocks at Windows.
On its face, the proposal to share student data with private companies seems to clearly violate FERPA, the federal law covering privacy of educational data. According to the article linked, the schools are claiming that it's OK, because when FERPA says it's OK for student data to be accessed by "School officials with legitimate educational interest", that really also means third-party contractors working for the schools. Apparently, the Department of Education has signed off on this. WTF? How can this possibly fit the legislative intent? It says "school officials", not "school vendors" or "school contractors". And there's a reason for that: actual school officials are subject to some level of public control and accountability, while private contractors are not.
This plan should be challenged in court as a violation of federal law.
Wrong. Arms can become amputated. The Forehead would be the logical choice.
I disagree, you entire notion is just loony talk.
Would you say driving is illegal? You need permission to do that and sometimes it is denied.
Homeschooling is often done because people want to keep their children uneducated. That should be prevented, it is simply child abuse.
If I had mod points you'd get one. Some parents prefer their children at work instead of at school. They want the quick buck now, and don't put much thought into their kids' future. Obligatory school attendance can help cut down on child labor.
How did I abandon it?
Purposefully under educating children is abuse. You are making sure they will be unsuited to operate in society and stealing their future. How is that not abuse?
I think both are reasonable. Just because people (which is what the government is/represents) decide to restrict an activity does not mean that activity is illegal. Nor does it mean that it is not abuse to fail in the care of a child.
http://www.indiana.edu/~homeeduc/FAQ.html
Look at their question about religion.
The biggest single reason people homeschool is that they are religious nutters. I have a friend who's wife quit working to homeschool, every time they bring it up they have to mention they are not religious nutters since that is the most common reason for that arrangement. The wife stays home only because her income was lower than his.
From the linked Reuters article:
> The database is a joint project of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, which provided most of the
> funding, the Carnegie Corporation of New York and school officials from several states. Amplify
> Education, a division of Rupert Murdoch's News Corp, built the infrastructure over the past 18
> months. When it was ready, the Gates Foundation turned the database over to a newly created
> nonprofit, inBloom Inc, which will run it.
I thought the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation was trying to *help* children, not *sell* them.
FTFA: The database is a joint project of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation,
They label it as "personalized learning" but it could just as easily be used for "personalized hiring". Typical M$ spin applies easily here.
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