InBloom is wilting thanks to privacy concerns–but they don’t stop with InBloom
In my first post for this blog I covered the splashy debut ofInBloom at the SXSWEdu conference in Texas in March. I noted that it’s tough to explain exactly what the company does (essentially, they provide the infrastructure for a variety of smaller applications to harness the data generated by students to make their offerings more efficient and personalized). I also highlighted privacy concerns that are starting to surface about the collecting, repackaging and re-selling of student data for the benefit of for-profit companies.
Several months later it seems that both the inability to explain for the layperson what the company does, and the panic over privacy and security (underlined by the recent upheaval over NSA data mining), are dogging InBloom and may doom it. The number of partner and pilot states for the organization, initially listed at seven, is now down to five according to the website. And in at least two of those states, New York and Colorado, the idea faces vociferous local opposition. The American Federation of Teachers has stepped in, issuing a statement citing a