Columnists react: ODE, Nov. 20, “One office, one system, your data”
“While I’m just as worried as the next guy about our country becoming an Orwellian police state, I don’t think that student data being consolidated is going to be what does us in. The government isn’t spying on us any more than it already does; it’s simply bringing relevant information together into one place rather than leaving it scattered across nine different databases. This isn’t a violation of privacy, it’s simply an example of a government organization trying to do its job more efficiently – I just wish our intelligence agencies would do the same thing.”
– Truman Capps
“I see the merits of consolidating many different data systems into one. However, I still feel weary about the security of the system. It doesn’t do much for students to simply assure them that their information is safe. That is a tremendous amount of information to trust to someone. Privacy is the most important issue to address about this system – privacy for the students not only from the security system, but also from excuses that agencies could make in order to gain information that they would have no reason or right to see.”
– Quinn Moticka
“While I appreciate the Department of Education’s effort to increase efficiency by centralizing our data, it’s a little bit disconcerting to see so much information being collected in one place with identity thefts still on the rise at universities. The University of Alaska and UCLA have both suffered major breaches of security on their computer systems that only serve to warn us of the importance of keeping student records safe. Further, it might be nice if the University only collected from us the information they absolutely need, avoiding the unnecessary storage of our social security numbers or other sensitive data. In other words, sensitive data should only be collected when it must be used by law, and not be stored as a general policy from all students.”
– Matt Petryni
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Columnists react
Daily Emerald
November 23, 2008
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