Partners On Microsoft Privacy Pledge In Education: Actions Speak Louder Than Words
Microsoft, along with 13 other companies in the education space, are promising more stringent protections for students, though partners say their actions will ultimately speak louder than words.
The pledge promises protection around data sharing, data storage, sale of student information, transparency and more.
"K-12 school service providers are honored to be entrusted by educators and families to support their educational needs and school operations. School service providers take responsibility to both support the effective use of student information and safeguard student privacy and information security.... In so doing, it is critical that schools and school service providers build trust by effectively protecting the privacy of student information and communicating with parents about how student information is used and safeguarded," the pledge said.
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The announcement comes just a few months after Google was criticized for data mining millions of student messages in Google Apps For Education for uses such as targeted advertising. Google said at the end of April that it would stop mining student emails for advertising purposes. The state of California this week passed a bill limiting how businesses could use information collected from students.
Google did not sign the agreement and declined to comment on the privacy pledge by its competitors. Other signatories of the pledge include Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, Knewton, Maestro, Mind Research Institute and myON among others.
Partners of Google and Microsoft dismissed the pledge as "marketing," and said they will wait and see what steps the companies take moving forward.
Ed Don, president of Lumen21, a Microsoft partner, said it is hard for companies to not sign a pledge like this.
"I personally think they have no choice. I think it’s a bit of hype, just me personally. It's kind of like what you have to say," Don said. "If you don’t, someone's going to ask you, how come you didn’t sign up for the pledge of privacy? What are you going to say?"
Some Google partners said they weren't concerned about the company not being on the list of signatories.
Allen Falcon, CEO of Westborough, Mass.-based Cumulus Global, said he doesn't see the pledge negatively affecting Google at all. He said Google already has similar, if not stronger, provisions for privacy baked into its terms of service and SLAs for their education products.
"I think it's definitely a marketing thing, but it's not significant from a factual standpoint," Falcon said.
Craig Hickman, vice president of sales at Bloomington, Ind.-based ProBleu, echoed Falcon's thoughts, saying there is "no reason" for Google to have signed the pledge. That is especially true, he said, since Google has someone on the board of the SIIA, one of the groups in charge of the pledge.
"The main reason why Google has not signed this is because there is no reason. It's just a "feel good" pledge," Hickman wrote in an email to CRN.
Lumen21's Don pointed out there isn't really anything outwardly enforceable in the pledge though privacy is a growing concern, especially in education as schools look to beef up security in the wake of bullying and other technology misues.
"I think it's part of a larger thing that’s happening in that ecosystem as technology is getting more adopted in the schools and some of those implications are making people aware," Don said.
PUBLISHED OCT. 7, 2014