Privacy Concerns about Student Data Meets Big Parents

• By Ginger Hill
• Jun 09, 2014

With the amount of information we are exposed to and that is available at our fingertips, we are actively living in the present with Big Data. The response is to either embrace it or fight it. Some parents are taking the second choice when it comes to data mining of their children; it’s Big Parents vs. Big Data.

In most states across the US, schools are developing databases full of information about individual students in an effort to improve public education by analyzing this data to determine how children develop and how behaviors at a young age affect future success. Parents of these students; however, are worried that this personal information about their child/children could be leaked and are actively voicing their privacy concerns.

Stemmed from education technology startup, Knewton, this data analytics firm has already peered into the brains of more than 4 million students, monitoring their every mouse click, keystroke and hesitations as children work through digital textbooks. This allows Knewton to record what children know and how they think. The data analytics are so powerful that they can even predict which individual student will struggle with a particular concept in the future.

Politicians who approved this measure did not expect opposition to this degree to the databases. But, with the possibility of limitless amounts of personal information about students getting into the hands of private companies by cybercriminals, children’s personal information has a high vulnerability rate to be shared, sold or mined for profit. And, moms and dads across the nation are not taking too kindly to that.