Info on kids for sale: only $1
p2pnet view Kids & Kartels:- “American Schools Selling your child’s personal information – Each child is a dollar!”
That’s the headline in a Spam Trap post from a little earlier today. It refers to a story in WOAI.com which states that under the US Family Educational Rights Privacy Act, public school districts “across the country are forced to give out your child’s personal information”.
It goes on >>>
Here’s what most school districts consider public information when it comes to your child:
Name
Date of birth
Address
Telephone number
Awards received
School photos
While you might think all of this is private, the government considers it public information. If someone wants it, all they have to do is ask for it. And they only pay a small amount of money to the district to reimburse them for making copies or labels.
We also found out school districts that provide this information to requestors aren’t allowed to ask what the information will be used for.
News 4 WOAI wanted to know who has requested children’s personal information from the N.E.I.S.D. in the last few years. There are army recruiters, local day cares, photography businesses, and even driving schools on the list provided to us. Then there are other requestors, individuals, not associated with any business.
“We can’t distinguish between the requests of a legitimate marketer that wants to give out some coupons to a restaurant,” Calderon pointed out. “We can’t distinguish between that and the request of a journalist or between a general member of the public who might have an ulterior motive.”
Mendi Litman told us she doesn’t remember ever giving the district permission to sell her child’s information. But Calderon said details about this law and what information is considered public can be found in their student-parent handbook.
To stop this from happening, “When you register your child for school next year, read the enrollment papers closely”, suggests WOAI.com, adding:
“One of them will ask you for permission to release this information. If you don’t want anything released – check ‘no’. But if you check ‘yes’ or don’t fill it out at all, expect that your child’s info will automatically be put on the list.”
..
First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win ~ Mahatma Gandhi
WOAI.com – Selling your child’s personal information, May 7, 2010
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May 7th, 2010 at 9:48 am
This has been going on for a long time
May 7th, 2010 at 11:27 am
” If you don’t want anything released – check ‘no’ ”
i consider this a hostile act.
better:
“If you want this released – check ‘yes’”
but then again the school is a business so why make a difference between a child and a product?
more likely people will not say no in the first case then saying ‘yes’ in the second one…
May 7th, 2010 at 1:52 pm
For the corporation we are all “products” nothing more.
Destroy the corporations!
May 7th, 2010 at 3:36 pm
” ‘If you don’t want anything released – check ‘no’
i consider this a hostile act.
better:
‘If you want this released – check ‘yes’ ”
@cody:
I don’t understand such logic.
If the choice is being offered, why would it be “hostile” to take the “no” option??
The only thing I see going on here is more proof that Americans are being successfully conditioned by “fear of reprisal”. They’re being told at every turn how not cooperating with the State’s plan to have all personal info at its fingertips is “unpatriotic”, or “aiding the terrorists”.
But, what makes your statement even more curious, is that we’re not talking about “government” here, but about *schools*, and some dubious “requirement” for them to make the students’ info available to all sorts of undefined parties that neither the parents or the schools themselves are supposed to be able to question or discuss. (?!)
You don’t see a valid concern here?
May 7th, 2010 at 5:06 pm
and they talk about the evil of peado’s and how they should keep the children safe from them???
SICK!!!!
May 7th, 2010 at 10:28 pm
Seems the US educational system is no different than facebook itself.
May 7th, 2010 at 10:53 pm
@Jon and others,
This is a US Federal allow that allows the raping of kids info for money. “Family Educational Rights Privacy Act”, FERPA.
Whenever I have a privacy related question I either check privcom.gc.ca for Canadian news or pogowasright.org for US and other privacy news.
FERMA can be found on pogowasright.org, http://www.pogowasright.org/index.php?s=FERPA It will show other news like this (and lots worse). The military use of this is pretty orwellian and scary. Thumb through the pages the link above gives you.
A story on this to educate the kind American readers who may not be aware of it, and their right to be taken off this draconian selling list should be done. I mean if facebook is getting flak for invading privacy, then this should be fought for even harder.
I don’t know if this is done in Canada. No clue. Maybe you can shoot off an Email question to the privacy commissioners in Canada and see if they reply. I’m sure others would want to know as well.
People should be outraged at this.
…and to be honest, I had no clue about it either.
“Family Educational Rights Privacy Act” (FERPA). Sounds pretty harmless ay. Check the Military use and rights abuse on this. Worth the read. Check the US schools forcing students to take military “tests” under the guise of this auto-opt-in.
May 7th, 2010 at 11:21 pm
SHould say, “This is a US Federal ACT”