Duncan Warns Data Predators to Whom He Gave Privileges in 2009

At the behest of the Silicon Valley billionaires and the testing giants, the Obama Administration gutted FERPA protections for children in schools soon after coming into office, so that now corporate privateers and data predators have rich feeding grounds to collect, sift, and mine student and teacher data for whatever purposes they see fit.

With parents and school boards with their hair on fire about cameras in the classroom and "cloud" data storage, Obama's corporate stooge, Arne Duncan, is trying to pretend to address the problem that his office directly caused.

What is he doing?  Essentially, he is giving the billionaire technocrats like Gates a wag of his finger by urging them to self-regulate.  Wonder how Arne would ever know if they did or didn't. Especially since there is no regulation!

A clip from HuffPo:

. . . .In guidance issued Tuesday, the Education Department encouraged districts to look closely at what online services are already in use within their schools. The guidelines suggest that districts develop procedures to evaluate and approve educational services and, when possible, use a written contract or legal agreement. They also spell out applicable federal laws.

Douglas Levin, executive director of the State Educational Technology Directors Association, said the new guidance doesn't go far enough in providing applicable advice to districts. He said districts are dealing with complex questions, such as whether to take advantage of free educational programs available online and deciding what programs should be downloaded on tablets and other devices increasingly used in schools.

"I think if you are a district it is easy to be confused about what your obligations are," Levin said.

James Steyer, the chief officer of the advocacy group Common Sense Media, praised the recommendations and said they come at an important time as schools look for ways to expand learning using technology.

"It's still the wild, wild west out there, but it can be fixed," Steyer said.

The guidance comes one day after Education Secretary Arne Duncan spoke at a student privacy data conference and encouraged technology companies to do more to ensure student data is secure.

"There's plenty of energy, in this room and around the country, for stronger regulation of your work. Let me say this clearly: It is in your interest to police yourselves before other do," Duncan said.