“Colleges and universities must openly and actively discuss the potential of surveillance technologies on campuses and the conditions that lead to their proliferation and growth, and they must make conscious community-based decisions about when and if such technologies will be curtailed.” (Rezmierski, 2001, p. 42)With the rapidly growing demand for technology in education, colleges and universities are continuously seeking new ways to improve security in information technology. Maintaining proper security measures in a college or university setting can help to prevent problems with the network as a whole. However, some of these recent securities have been established without student consent or knowledge. This has birthed new controversy regarding the legality of surveillance on college and university campuses. While anachronous laws pertaining to technology conflict with the demands of a technological learning environment, student privacy rights should continue to be maintained. Computer monitoring practices, without consent, violates basic student rights. This could leave colleges and universities exposed to potential violations. Who is watching you when you are using a computer on campus? When you are checking your email in the library is someone else reading along with you? Are your rights as a student being violated by these monitoring practices? These are important questions that all students in higher education should be asking themselves. With the recent influx of technology in our colleges and universities, new standards of ethics in education need to be established and clearer laws regarding student privacy need to be enacted. Although students do hold some privacy rights under the Family Educational and Privacy Act (FERPA), these guidelines are limited to student records and information. FERPA is a safeguard for students and families, however, the laws outlined by FERPA have not been adequately amended to suit recent technological advances. As such, many of the privacy guidelines pertaining to technology in higher education are vague and leave a large margin for interpretation.
“While the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) generally requires institutions to ask for written consent before disclosing a student's personally identifiable information, it also allows colleges and universities to take key steps to maintain campus safety.” (U.S. Department of Education, 2007, p. 2)The ambiguity of the laws outlined by FERPA has forced colleges and universities to make uneducated interpretations of the law in order to decide which security measures are appropriate in ensuring the safety of network systems. This includes the use of computer monitoring and surveillance in common areas and computer labs.
“Because of the lack of policies and training regarding regulations, law, fair information practice, and data protection, college and university personnel are pursuing abusers of their systems and potential abusers of systems and data on their own.” (Rezmierski, 2001, p. 43)Such determinations formed under ignorant circumstances have placed colleges, universities, and students in a vulnerable position. Institutions of higher education need to be allowed to protect themselves from potential online threats, however, student privacy laws also need to be respected. Overall, the laws put forth by FERPA to protect colleges, universities, and students need to be updated to include the use of technology in education. Until such a time when laws are adjusted, colleges and universities need to inform students of their intent to perform surveillance in order to respect and maintain student privacy.
References
Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act [FERPA]. (2007). In ED.gov. Retrieved 2007, from U.S Department of Education website: http://www2.ed.gov/policy/gen/guid/fpco/brochures/postsec.pdf Rezmierski, V. (2001).
Final Reports NSF-Lamp Project: Identifying Where Technology Logging and Monitoring for Increased Security End and Violations of Personal Privacy and Student Records Begin. In American Association of Collegiate Registrars and Admissions Officers. Retrieved 2001, from AACRAO website: http://www.aacrao.org/publications/NSF-LAMP.pdf
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