My University is Releasing Student Personal Info "For The Public"

[Larnuk]

Hey guys, just wanted to share this. I posted this yesterday on the TekSyndicate forums, and I figured you might want to see it as well. I'm going to edit out a few bits, but otherwise, this is the exact same post.

 

While in my English class today (I'm a Freshman in 101), we we're going over our new e-book and digital homework systems and the professor opened up an e-mail. This e-mail contained a message, that should go out to students, but apparently has not (yet, hopefully). It was written to explain how the University is going to release a lot of personal information about us students, not sure if that includes faculty. Since I don't have the e-mail in front of me right now, I'm going to list off a few of the things that are said to be released that I can remember.

Name, address, phone numbers, e-mail (not sure if student e-mail, personal, or both), age (possibly on what year of school), a picture, and that was only maybe half of what was listed.

If I do not recieve the e-mail in the next couple days, I will ask my Professor to forward it to me. The thing that irritated me most is that they don't really say why they are doing this, and are having us jump through hoops to opt-out.

 

This whole thing really shocked me, and I was wondering if anyone else has experienced anything like this at their school, workplace, or wherever?

 

EDIT: I guess my Professor has some mind-reading ability, because right as I posted this I got the e-mail forwarded to me. I guess it wasn't really an e-mail, but something that was posted on our Notices in what is like a "central hub" website for students and staff. Here is most of the message (footer omitted, etc)

 

Public Notice - Student Directory Information

Pursuant to University policy on the release of Student Directory Information and the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA), the University may make student directory information accessible to any person external to the University, unless that student notifies the Academic Records Office, in writing, that he/she objects to the release of such information. Directory information is considered to be public in nature and will be released at anytime upon request without prior approval from the student. Notice is therefore given that directory information listed below in respect to each student enrolled at SIU will be available to any person unless the student has filed with the Registrar's Office a written request to restrict release of student directory information to external sources.

The University has designated as directory information the following student information:

* Student Name

* Student Local Address & Telephone Number

* Student Home Address & Telephone Number

* Student E-Mail Address

* Current & Past Term Status (Full-Time, Part-Time)

* Classification (Freshman, Sophomore, Etc.)

* Academic Unit

* Major

* Dates Of Attendance

* Degrees & Honors Earned & Dates

* The Most Previous Educational Agency Or Institution Attended Prior To Enrollment At SIU

* Participation In Officially Recognized Activity Or Sport

* Weight, Height & Pictures Of Members Of Athletic Teams

* Date Of Birth

* Picture

Any student enrolled at SIU who does not wish to have released any directory information should contact, in person, the Academic Records Office, Woody Hall Room A-103, by Tuesday, September 3, 2013. Students who elect to restrict the release of student information must sign a statement to that effect (such statement is available at http://registrar.siu.edu/pdf/RestrictReleaseOfStudentInfoForm.pdf). The restriction on the release of student directory information will be valid until the student submits, in writing, a request that the restriction be removed.

 

So, I guess that's it. I looked up this "FERPA" act, and I'm surprised to see that it is actually meant to HELP students keep info private. But there must have been something when enrolling that allows the school to do this. The school is fairly large (almost 20,000 students), and it seems like a major problem to have all of that info available to the public. Of course, a lot of it is already available by social media, but it will be in one nicely organized package (probably). Maybe you think some of this info isn't really all that important, and you would be right, but it shows how easily information is released; and I'll bet a lot of students wont opt-out. I can only hope that more students catch on to this.

 

[Emkryan]

stop going and revolt

[Samdb]

That is not cool at all, they can't do that, it's personal information and violates the Data Protection Act.

[jamese669]

That is not cool at all, they can't do that, it's personal information and violates the Data Protection Act.

ha like that matters any more they do what ever the fuck they like. it happining more and more offten i think we need to revolt

[Samdb]

ha like that matters any more they do what ever the fuck they like. it happining more and more offten i think we need to revolt

 

It's illegal actually.

[Kirihuna]

>Southern Illinois University

Not gonna lie, no surprise there... SIU does dumb things like this all the time...

 

But that's still illegal.

[Slaeowulf]

The Data Protection Act requires institutions to provide reasonable and adequate protection of a person's data (e.g. firewalls, secure storage, even locking the doors to the room that the data is stored), be they a customer, employee, student, contractor, etc. They are allowed, with express permission (which you may have signed in a learner's agreement or something) to release statistical information about a group of people (e.g. 80% of our students are white, 13% are black, etc), but they are not (I'll repeat that) NOT allowed to release sensitive personal information, especially contact information.

Honestly, you need to get the student body behind you on this matter and talk to your Student Union (or whatever representative you have in your country) or even a solicitor/lawyer (they may even represent you for free for the publicity or just from pure philanthropy). This would set a truly dangerous precedent regarding information security if they went ahead and did this. They REALLY should know better!

[Stephie_Girl]

It's illegal actually.

Many things companies and governments do have been illegal.  Look at the GM bail out how our president and chief ordered bankruptcy law null and void for this scenario, 6 million retirement funds were null and voided and credits were ignored to save 3 million jobs.  Our president actually did not have the power to supersede a law through an executive order but no one pressed charges on him.  It's only illegal if enough action is taken.

[iswedishleafs]

maybe we should all just move to New Zealand, everything seems chill over there  

[X50CalSniperX]

Why though? What are they going to use the information for?

 

Ah, sheer stupidity. What they are doing is illegal if I recall correctly. You best contact them quickly about it, otherwise I got a strong feeling its gonna bite BOTH of you in the ass real bad.

So for all you foreigners, welcome to the American education and justice system. It's great ain't it?

Seems nice... Do they teach you anything interesting over there? Education here in Canada kinda sucks... Way too easy.

[Canoas]

If you want to stop this then get a petition going. If you just want out then contact the records office like they said.

I'm pretty sure they need your permission to release your personal information, but I very much doubt anyone will do anything about it.

[CynicalRootVegetable]

Torch the place!

[OddlyShapedTree]

There is no way to opt out of this? There should be somewhere if you dig deep enough. A bit off topic but still somewhat related but there was a county that would release the scores of the exams in the paper so even if you failed or passed everyone knew. This brought up similar controversy