Protect student and family privacy NOW
On Monday, the members of NY Board of Regents are meeting to discuss the state’s plan to share highly confidential, personally identifiable student data with the corporation called inBloom Inc., which plans to share it with for-profit vendors without parental notification or consent. On Friday, John White, the State Education Commissioner of Louisiana, announced he was pulling his state’s data out of inBloom, because of the privacy concerns expressed by parents and the members of his state’s Board of Education.
Please send a message to the Board of Regents today, asking them to follow Louisiana’s lead. A sample message follows, along with the Regents’ email addresses. Feel free to alter the message any way you like, but please send it today!
TO: mhtisch@mhtisch.com;RegentCashin@mail.nysed.gov; regentnorwood@mail.nysed.gov; regentcea@mail.nysed.gov;regentyoung@mail.nysed.gov; regentrosa@mail.nysed.gov; regentbendit@mail.nysed.gov; regentjackson@mail.nysed.gov;regenttilles@mail.nysed.gov; regenttallon@mail.nysed.gov; regentphillips@mail.nysed.gov;regentchapey@mail.nysed.gov; regentbottar@mail.nysed.gov; regentdawson@mail.nysed.gov;regentbennett@mail.nysed.gov; regentcofield@mail.nysed.gov; regenttisch@mail.nysed.gov;regentsoffice@mail.nysed.gov; regentcottrell@mail.nysed.gov; RegentBrown@mail.nysed.gov
Dear Board of Regents:
Last week, John White, the State Education Commissioner of Louisiana, announced he was pulling his state’s student data out of inBloom Inc., because of the strong privacy concerns expressed by parents and the members of his state’s Board of Education. As I parent, I urge you to do the same.
Louisiana is the only state along with New York that was planning on sharing student data with inBloom Inc. statewide. The data which New York State Education Department is providing to inBloom will reportedly include student names, addresses, emails, phone numbers, along with their grades, test scores, racial, special education and economic status, as well as disciplinary records.
inBloom intends to store this highly sensitive data on a cloud, and has already said that it will not be responsible if the data leaks out in storage or transmission. New York and inBloom then intend to disclose this highly sensitive personally identifiable data to for-profit vendors without parental notification or consent. Articles about this plan have appeared in Reuters and the Daily News, among other media outlets.
I urge you to follow Louisiana’s lead, and pull our student data out of this risky project immediately. Do New York children deserve less privacy than children in Louisiana? If the data leaks out or is used inappropriately by vendors, it could damage a student’s prospects for his or her life.
If you do not decide to withdraw all the state’s data, I ask that you at least require parental consent, so that I as well as other parents can decide for ourselves if we would like our children’s most sensitive information shared with inBloom and other corporations.
Yours sincerely,
name, address
Round the Inkwell 
8 Responses to “Protect student and family privacy NOW”
Done!
John White is right! Our kids deserve their privacy, and for profit companies should not have access to their personal data.
It is WRONG! This should NOT be allowed!!!!
Based on many recent developments surrounding Common Core and all the mysteries that are being unveiled, it is imperative that the New York State Education Department abstain from sharing any information with inBloom Inc. Students have a right to privacy and the education department is mandated by law to act in loco parentis. The Federal Government has used the new adage “let’s pass it, and then we’ll find out what’s in it!” to slip this atrocity of the Common Core & Race to the Top legislation. Act swiftly and quickly.
Our children must have the privacy and confidentiality that they deserve. I am appalled that their information is being sold to corporate America.
I totally agree and plan to send a message myself. Is there a link from the e-mail to do so as I can not find one. Do I have to send it to each regents e-mail individually?
You can try to cut and paste them in. If you put your mouse on their name, it will generate an email for that Regent. Then you can just paste your email in.
Students have the right to privacy and it is our obligation to grant this God given right.