Here is the text of testimony delivered by CPS Executive Direction Marilyn Segal on June 27, 2013 before the Education Committee of the Massachusetts Legislature:
I am here to speak in favor to H331 and limitations on cloud computing services processing student information in Massachusetts. However, this legislation is only a small step; CPS believes there should be more protections in place. We would be happy to work with the committee to draft legislation that gives all the necessary protection to our children.
Massachusetts is one of several states committed to participate in the development and pilot testing of inBloom, a Gates Foundation initiative. Student information—including the child’s name, home address, email address, test scores, racial identity, economic and special education status, and possibly even detailed disciplinary and health records—will be stored on a data “cloud” and could be shared with for-profit corporations, without any guarantee that the information will be safeguarded. There is no opt out provision available to parents.
Everett is the only school district that will pilot this program in Massachusetts. If successful, plans are for the data collection program to be expanded to districts across the state.
The good news is that to date, no Massachusetts student data has been shared with inBloom or its for-profit partners. And thanks to sustained and widespread public outcry, Massachusetts’ educational officials now say they are only evaluating inBloom’s potential, and have not yet committed to going forward with this project. Two pilot states, Georgia and Louisiana, have already ended their relationship with inBloom after extensive parent protests.
CNN will be airing a segment on inBloom on Saturday at about 3:30pm with an online print post on Friday.
CPS urges this committee to protect our children. H331 is a start, but does not go far enough in protecting the privacy of children from preschool potentially through graduate school. Even if inBloom does not get implemented now, we know that there are already others such as Wireless Generation, a company that currently serves 3 million The good news is that to date, no Massachusetts student data has been shared with inBloom or its for-profit partners. And thanks to sustained and widespread public outcry, Massachusetts’ educational officials now say they are only evaluating inBloom’s potential, and have not yet committed to going forward with this project. Two pilot states, Georgia and Louisiana, have already ended their relationship with inBloom after extensive parent protests.
CPS urges this committee to protect our children. H331 is a start, but does not go far enough in protecting the privacy of children from preschool potentially through graduate school. Even if inBloom does not get implemented now, we know that there are already others such as Wireless Generation that currently serves 3 million students. It was recently acquired by News Corporation for $360 million. Obviously there is a lot money to be made here.
We need this legislature to be proactive, our students are in jeopardy if you wait.
