NYC Gave Kids' Private Info to Corporations; Parents Hit the Roof

Pissed-off parent from P.S. 49 at town hall. Photo: MK Metz

At a Town Hall at Brooklyn Borough Hall last night, Brooklyn parents went ballistic when told that the New York City Department of Education (along with NY state), has handed over to a private corporation -- inBloom, Inc. -- every detail of their kids' most private information.

This data includes: names, addresses, emails, photos, grades, test scores, learning styles, disciplinary, health and attendance records, the results of academic and psychological tests, race and ethnicity, economic and disability status and more, according to the Brooklyn Eagle.

Teacher and staff data is also being "shared."

Even better?

Information is being stored on a vulnerable Amazon cloud built by Wireless/Amplify, owned by Rupert Murdoch’s News Corporation – the company famous for violating the privacy of individuals in Great Britain and in the United States.

Leonie Haimson, executive director of Class Size Matters, put on a Powerpoint presentation guaranteed to make you feel like you stepped into a Big Brother dream. Parents have no ability to "opt out" of the data dump. Commercial vendors -- and inevitably criminal groups based in Russia and Eastern Europe -- will have access to the children's data in order to develop products to market to schools.

Former NYC Schools Chancellor Joel Klein -- as CEO of Wireless/Amplify -- stands to make mega bucks if Wireless/Amplify's wireless tablet device is given a NYC contract to plug into the inBloom data.

Which something tells us is gonna happen.

- Parents outraged over NYC schools data sharing program. Brooklyn Eagle


Go to McBrooklyn's HOME PAGE.