Parents: please send a message to the Regents asking them to withdraw from inBloomtoday!
Tomorrow, the members of NY Board of Regents are meeting to discuss the state's plan to share highly confidential, personally identifiable student data with a corporation called inBloom Inc., which intends 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 NY 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 plan to provide this highly sensitive personally identifiable data to for-profit vendors without parental notification or consent. Articles about this controversial 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,
Your name, address
John White's letter to his Board of Education about pulling out of inBloom
John White, the Louisiana State Commissioner of Education, announced Friday he was pulling the state's student data out of inBloom Inc., because of the protests and privacy concerns of students, parents and the some members of Louisiana Board of Education. Parents and privacy advocates in the eight other states participating in inBloom should urge their officials and Boards of education to immediately follow Louisiana's lead.
Here is the letter White sent the board Thursday evening:
Here is the letter White sent the board Thursday evening:
From: John White <john.white@la.gov>>
Date: Thu, 18 Apr 2013 18:16:59 -0500
To: Chas Roemer <ChasRoemer@hotmail.com>>, "James_Garvey@hmhlp.com" <James_Garvey@hmhlp.com>>, Holly Boffy <holly.boffy@gmail.com>>, "Orange Jones, Kira" <Kira.OrangeJones@teachforamerica.org>>, Carolyn Hill <carolyn.hill2@la.gov>>, Lottie Beebe <lottie_beebe@stmartin.k12.la.us>>, Jay Guillot <jguillot@hga-llc.com>>, Walter Lee <wclee1@att.net>>, Connie Bradford <cebradford@suddenlink.net>>, Stephen Waguespack <SWaguespack@joneswalker.com>>, "<jmiranti@xula.edu>>" <jmiranti@xula.edu>>
Cc: Heather Cope <Heather.Cope@LA.GOV>>
Subject: Update
Members:
At Wednesday's meeting we heard some compelling testimony regarding the state's and school districts' data storage practices. It's an issue worth continued discussion with the board.
The data storage agreement with the inBloom database was undertaken with caution and a sense of responsibility. However, because of the concerns expressed by some parents, and because we have not yet had an in-depth discussion with the board and public about data storage at the agency or district level, I think that it is best for now that we withdraw student information from the inBloom database. I have told our staff to do so and have informed inBloom of our decision.
We have protected student information for decades and take security very seriously. Given the concerns expressed by our most important constituents -- students and families -- I'd like a chance to discuss our policies and procedures with you before we enter into new relationships with partners providing this service
Thanks as always for your time. Have a great weekend.
John
John White
Louisiana Department of Education
Twitter @LouisianaSupe
|