FERPA Regulation Amendments as a Teachable Moment

by on April 16, 2011 · 2 comments

When legislation or regulation is what you rely on for privacy protection, your privacy protection relies on political consensus staying the same. When political consensus changes, your privacy can go away.

Witness the Department of Education’s proposed change to FERPA regulations—the Family Education Rights and Privacy Act—to make more data about students available to more people. The privacy protections that have applied until now are unlikely to withstand the Education Department’s belief that using data about students is more important.

To anyone who relied on FERPA for privacy protection: Oops!

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About Jim Harper

Jim Harper is the Director of Information Policy Studies at The Cato Institute, the Editor of Web-based privacy think-tank Privacilla.org, and the Webmaster of WashingtonWatch.com. A Poli Sci major at the University of California at Santa Barbara, Jim served as Editor-in-Chief of the Hastings Constitutional Law Quarterly in his final year at Hastings College of the Law. Prior to becoming a policy analyst and advocate, Jim served as counsel to committees in both the U.S. House and Senate. He avoids genuine life experience by watching lots and lots of reality TV.

Read more articles by Jim Harper.

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