From student email accounts to online learning tools, digital resources are now a big part of education. These tools often require students to create accounts using their names, student ID numbers, or even their birthdates. This information can be quite revealing and often easily breached in cyber-attacks. With the increase of technology used in the classroom parents have serious concerns regarding what is being done to protect their children's privacy.
Time and time again students have been warned to be mindful of what they publish on the internet, reminded it is hard to fully delete, and can be unknowingly taken and used in a malicious manner. Despite this, many students have given out personal information through school required accounts without even realizing it or notifying their parents of what accounts they have.
To address these concerns, Arizona Revised Statutes 15-1046 was created. It regulates how schools use the student’s data and the elimination of third-party vendors in terms of collecting data for commercial uses.
Additionally, the law requires schools to get parental consent before collecting sensitive information from students. Schools are also responsible to ensure that the data they collect is secure and used only for educational purposes. Third-party vendors must follow strict data protection standards and are not allowed to sell student data for commercial purposes. The law includes regular checks and penalties for schools and vendors that do not follow these rules.
Having laws like ARS 15-1046 allows for investigations when data breaches occur and solutions to stop them from happening again. In August of 2023, the Arizona Department for Homeland Security released its report on a breach of data through the program Class Wallet and identified unrightful privileges given to individuals in relation to the State’s Empowerment Scholarship Account.
Next time you go to hit the “create an account” button on a website, think of what information you could be sharing and how ARS 15-1047 could be protecting you!
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