Data Sharing & Privacy Demands in Education: How to Protect Students While Satisfying Policy & Legal Requirements
Any decision to share data, especially across agencies, requires careful deliberation and diverse stakeholder engagement to minimize unintended consequences to students and their families. Sharing data always involves risk, and potential harm to students and their families is not limited to inadvertent disclosures. It can also include violating parents’ and students’ expectations, increasing administrative burden, and using data in biased manners that limit educational opportunities for students and potentially violate their civil rights.
At the same time that practitioners and policymakers are considering if and when to share data, they are faced with legal requirements and policy demands that require sharing student information. Data is shared today across agencies to meet legal requirements, follow federal guidance, provide basic services to individuals, and support efforts to serve vulnerable students. Privacy efforts have largely been focused on ensuring data sharing is legally compliant, but protecting students requires more than legal compliance. This technical guide offers best practices to meet data sharing needs while protecting student privacy.
Coalition Urges Senate Not to Let Companies Waive Financial Regulations for AI
CDT joined AI Now Institute, American Civil Liberties Union, and several organizations dedicated to tech policy, consumer protection, and civil rights in a letter to Senate leadership and the Senate Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs Committee opposing the “AI Innovation Labs” language in Sec. 10509 of the CLARITY Act.
The Privacy Paradox: How Government Data Has Become Less Private and Less Useful
Providing ready access to information collected and maintained by the government promotes accountability, innovation, and research, making transparency a core responsibility of serving as a steward of the public’s data. Public agencies must also safeguard sensitive information when making data publicly available.
Defending State Data: Lessons from California v. USDA
As the federal government increasingly seeks access to state administrative data, policymakers should consider not only legal authority and privacy implications, but also the practical effects on public confidence, program effectiveness, and states’ ability to fulfill their obligations to residents.
CDT and Partners Urge Passage of the California Location Privacy Act of 2025 (AB 322)
Location data is particularly sensitive, and when collected across time it can reveal a broad range of intrusive insights such as medical conditions, sexual orientation, political activities, and religious beliefs.
