A firm that gathered data from high-schoolers will enter a consumer-protection settlement with Iowa and 41 other states, promising not to sell their data to commercial users. The “National Research Center for College and University Admissions” told students and their parents that survey data collected in schools would be shared with colleges and other schools. But Attorney General spokesman Bob Brammer says the company went beyond that. The surveys are touted as a way for high-school seniors to get their information out to schools, and might be a good thing for matching students up with colleges. Brammer says that’s not a bad thing, but two or three years ago some students found their data was also being sold to other clients. In that period several years ago Brammer says the company mis-represented its procedures, claiming all its information was being used for schools and recruitment, but in fact selling it to other companies that marketed products and services to the students. For the most part, their intent was completely on the up-and-up. “Students get marketed for a lot of things,” Brammer says. “Credit cards, magazines, honors projects, things like that…some of them flat-out commercial, others for educational purposes.” The attorneys general didn’t argue that’s wrong, just that this company claimed it would not do that. The firm sent its survey forms to students who were doing surveys, and to some schools where staff handed out the forms and asked students to fill them in. They were provided to teachers and guidance counselors who handed them out to students. The company does sell the data, but to schools that may have certain priorities and want to look through the data to find, for example, minority girl students interested in becoming engineers. The company’s quit selling that data to non-school users, but Brammer explains the consumer-protection office wanted that to remain a permanent policy. It demanded a formal assurance to clients in the 42 states that had challenged NRCCUA. He says the assurance is a formal document that says the company will not mis-represent how info will be used, and gives students and parents the right to opt out of taking surveys. If the company ever changes its policy again on who it’ll sell survey information to, it has to provide notice. The organization”s website says it will not share the information, and you can view it at http://www.nrccua.org/
