CDT Signs Onto Letter Urging Congress to Protect Postsecondary Student Data
On March 10, 2025 the Center for Democracy & Technology joined the Institute for Higher Education Policy (IHEP), the Postsecondary Data Collaborative (PostsecData), and 87 other organizations and individual researchers in sending a letter to members of Congress urging them to use their oversight power to demand information regarding the recent cancellation of the Institute of Education Sciences (IES) contracts and grants by the the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) and how sensitive student information may have been accessed and by whom.
The letter explains that the U.S. Department of Education collects and maintains sensitive personally identifiable information about student loan borrowers like their social security number and tax records. Serious privacy and security concerns persist because there is little information about who has accessed this information, how they are keeping it safe, and what they are doing with it, and these questions would benefit from additional Congressional inquiry and oversight.
