privacy and disclosure: competing values in higher education - sponsored by wowza media systems...

8/11/2019 Privacy and Disclosure: Competing Values in Higher Education - Sponsored by Wowza Media Systems (242306460)

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Cybersecurity & Privacy vs.

Academic Freedom & Open Learning

Competing Values in Higher Education

Dr. Anita L. Allen, JD, PhD



At odds? If so, what has to give?

AcademicFreedom & Open

LearningCybersecurity &

Data PrivacyProtection



Mission-Critical Higher Ed Priorities

TraditionalAcademic Freedom

Open LearningInitiatives

Cybersecurity &Privacy Protection



Working Definitions

Mission-

Critical

Priorities

Academic Freedom: age-old

tradition whereby students andfaculty assert, explore and debate

ideas without censorship.

Open learning: an emerging practice makingeducational resources available to public under liberal

use policies – “courses, course materials, modules,

textbooks, streaming videos, tests, software, and anyother tools” --

(www.hewlett.org/Programs/Education/OER/)

Cyber/security: protection of data & networks through software, hardware

and human practices that limit access, collection, use, disclosure of data.

Privacy Protection: limited access to people and personal information.

http://www.hewlett.org/Programs/Education/OER/

http://www.hewlett.org/Programs/Education/OER/



Cybersecurity & Data Privacy Matter

DecreasedCybersecurity and Data

Protection…

…Increased risk of data

breaches, unauthorizedaccess to private,confidential, sensitive,secret and proprietarydata



CommonCybersecurity

Concepts

Data breachnegligence or mischief

exposing data tounauthorized access Sensitive

data

data acommunityregards as

meriting specialprotection from

unauthorizeddisclosure

Proprietary

Owned orprotected by

copyright,trademark, patent

etc.

Identity theft

Unauthorized useof

misappropriatedpersonal data

Privacy

limited access topeople and

personalinformation

Confidentiality limiting data to

authorizedrecipients

Secrecy intentional

concealmentof data



Converging Capacities

Data PrivacyProtection

Cybersecurity

Six Spheres

Sensitivity



Spheres of Data Sensitivity in Higher Ed

1. Education information (FERPA+)

• Transcripts

• Applications

• Disciplinary

2. Health information (HIPAA+)

3. Employment information

• General personnel records, performance reviews

• Confidential Faculty Promotion and Tenure Files

4. Problems and Disputes

• Grievance, Legal, Ombud and Counseling

5. Identities

• Religion, Race, Sexual Orientation, Emigration Status, Trans/Gender)

6. Ideas

• Research, Works in Progress

• Classes, lectures and labs: Sites for open exchange of ideas• Proprietary Innovations



At Odds

• Cybersecurity & data privacy are potentially and genuinely at

odds with some student and faculty preferences and some

open learning practices

• A philosophical problem

• A technical problem

IT/CPO professionals Open LearningProponents



An Inessential Tension

• Interests in cybersecurity & privacy protections often

converge with interests in traditional academic freedom

around data regarding identity and ideas

Cybersecurity&Data Privacy

Traditional

AcademicFreedom

Identity

and

ideas



Clash of Cultures: Framing the Problem:

“It is important to understand how the ….perspective of

security clashes with the information exchange culture of

the education domain. The current focus of the security

community on technical mechanisms to enforce and

protect desired behaviours does not fit well within a

learning environment….[which] thrives upon a tradition of

trust, information exchange and discussion. The security

domain, in contrast, relies on a culture of distrust,

restricted information flow and autocratic rules. It should

also be noted that students do not respond well to the

traditional authoritarian approach of many securitydepartments.” Anne Adams and Ann Blandford (2003)



IT/Security Issues With Open Learning

User Authentication

Passwords

Payments

Welcome Users Excluded

Resources Not Reliability Available

Integrity Problems

Data Privacy/Confidentiality

Multicultural Users



Strategies for IT/Privacy

-Know your Institution’s Open Learning Goals

-Invest in updated hardware/ software

-Hire/train outstanding IT professionals

-Manage wisely centralization issues on decentralized

campuses

-Say “no” only judiciously to popular or desired programs or

capacities that pose a threat to security

-Embrace open learning objectives/culture of your institution

-Mind knowledge gap between IT and non IT staff

-Boldly encourage individual responsibility for privacy(e.g.,

use of anti-virus and password management software)



Principles and Best Practices

-In higher education the tail cannot wag the dog: the most data

secure campus in the world not worth it, if costs to academic

freedom and innovative open learning experiments

exceptionally high. Obey law, but remember core mission.

-Higher ed employers have wide-ranging legal rights over

conduct and data of employees (and students) but higher ed

organizations stand uncritically on their rights to their detriment.



Thank you for participating

in today’s session.

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a minute to fill out the session evaluation found within

the conference mobile app, or the online agenda.

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