Dive Brief:

• Private student data, including social security numbers and birth dates, hadn't been wiped from at least two of a defunct New Orleans charter school's computers sold at auction last week by the Louisiana Property Assistance Agency.
• The computers came from a school called Future Is Now and contain data for 210 students, according to the Associated Press.
• Recovery School District Superintendent Patrick Dobard says the school should have wiped the devices before getting rid of them, while the state's Division of Administration says that responsibility also fell to the district itself. Regardless, the buyers — as well as parents of the students — are being contacted and arrangements are being made to wipe the data.  

Dive Insight:

Data getting in the wrong hands is one of the biggest fears that comes with using new technologies in schools. This situation reinforces a basic: Always wipe a computer, tablet, or phone when you are done using it. Often, when we think of data-mining and the scary side of school data collection, a malicious third party comes to mind, executing the careful and purposeful taking of information. This case, however, is not that at all. It points to pure carelessness. School closures and turnarounds appear to be becoming more of a norm, which means situations like this could become more common.  

Based on this incident, the Louisiana Division of Administration said the Property Assistance Agency is implementing a new plan where any electronic device must be wiped and marked as "sanitized" before being resold or placed in a storage house.