How Does Student Privacy Relate to Data Ethics and Data Equity?
From a data privacy perspective, responsible data use is more than compliance with laws and regulations and goes beyond basic assumptions of fairness. Student data privacy policies and practices must ensure ethical and equitable uses of data that minimize potential for harm and risk, especially to students from marginalized groups (e.g., students of color, students with disabilities, and students from lower socioeconomic backgrounds).
Data ethics and equity are related but different terms regarding how student data is used. Data ethics are the guiding principles for how stakeholders should govern, use, and protect data to minimize harm and risk. Examples of ethical data use include data governance policies and district practices that convey which data can be collected, how long data can be retained, who has access to data, and the purposes for which data is used. An ethical approach to data use includes policies that clearly distinguish appropriate and inappropriate data practices and communicate standards for data collection, use, protection, and sharing.
Data equity is dependent upon ethical policies and practices. What differentiates data equity from ethics is its focuses on using data to understand structural and systemic educational barriers to students’ success and to take actions to improve those structures and systems. Equitable data practices include regular audits of data, data systems, and data practices to assess and remediate bias or discrimination (e.g., unequal surveillance and discipline of students of color or noncompliant ADA edtech use) and identifying and addressing achievement, resource, and opportunity gaps (e.g., unequal graduation rates, student access to technology, or teacher shortages). A data equity mindset includes students and their families in the responsible and ethical use of their data. In practice, this includes regular communication to understand students’ needs and realities and regularly informing students of their rights related to data collection and use.