For more reasons than I can count, the 2016 presidential election has amplified our country’s ongoing debate on web privacy. The topic can grow tiresome, but if we stop to consider that the issue goes far beyond someone’s email server, it becomes a little more interesting.
Take student privacy, for example. We expect faculty and staff to honor FERPA. Do we expect the same of tech companies? Just yesterday, the AP reported that Mississippi Attorney General Jim Hood is suing Google. He claims the company is violating students’ privacy by using their data to sell targeted ads. Of course, Google is far from the only company to have a rocky relationship with privacy advocates. And, it often seems that when it comes to privacy on the web, schools and their students don’t have many good options. So what can be done? Here are a few places to start: