Dive Brief:
- De-identifying data could be a way to solve the issue of better protecting student privacy, as it removes students' identities from digital records.
- Some de-identification methods include hiding or deleting personal identifiers (like names, student numbers, or zip codes), using a code for the values in the score field, or getting rid of sensitive data from the preserved record.
- EdSurge notes that privacy laws like FERPA and California's SOPIPA typically have exemptions for de-identified data.
Dive Insight:
Data is useful for understanding where students stand, but there are, of course, concerns about where that data could end up or its potential use for marketing purposes.
On Monday, for example, The New York Times ran a feature on Tony Porterfield, a Cisco engineer and father of two who is using his computer skills to uncover security flaws in digital education products like Raz-Kids.com. Porterfield went to the newspaper after discovering that the online reading assessment product his son was supposed to use was not only unencrypted, but stored passwords in plain text — two security weaknesses that could allow unauthorized users easier access to private information.
Finding ways to de-identify data, while not a be-all, end-all solution, could help create safeguards in cases where data is compromised.
