April writes, “The University of California-Berkeley has become the first university in the United States to publish a set of transparency reports that detail government requests for student, faculty, and staff data.”
Looking at the report, the amount of Berkeley accounts affected by non-consensual requests for data isn’t trivial. Berkeley reports that .0506 percent of accounts are affected each year. To put it into perspective, Apple’s transparency report notes that .00571 percent of their users are affected by government requests.
Transparency reporting is important for universities. Not only are universities hotbeds of political activism, but hopefully this kind of regular reporting will help to instill expectations for students around privacy and transparency when it comes to personal data
Every College Should Issue a Transparency Report About Government Requests for Student Data [April Glaser/Slate]
(Image: Back view of protesters against B.C.C. motion Calbear22, Joseph Testa, CC-BY)
