Privacy and Security Risks in Higher Education

Speaker: Daniel J. Solove, John Marshall Harlan Research Professor of Law, George Washington University Law School
Moderator: Tracy Mitrano, Director of IT Policy, Cornell University

Privacy is a major and often underappreciated risk area for institutions of higher education. Many data security breaches, for example, are not the result of high-tech hacking, but of low-tech blunders made by faculty and staff – lost USB drives or laptops, data improperly placed on unauthorized servers, etc. Beyond data security, schools face liability for breaches of confidentiality, failure to share personal information when necessary, failure to address cyberbullying and harassment, and improper surveillance. Professor Solove will provide advice for how institutions of higher education can reduce the risk of having a privacy fiasco by discussing a series of case studies involving topics such as confidentiality and people in distress; outsourcing; data security; and online social media.