College Board fined $750G by AG James for violating students' privacy and selling their data
The College Board should protect students' data, “not sell it to customers for a profit,” Attorney General Letitia James said in announcing fining the organization on Tuesday. James is shown at Bethel A.M.E. Church in Huntington on Jan. 15. Credit: Howard Simmons
The College Board, a New York-based nonprofit that for almost 125 years has developed and administered standardized tests as part of the college admissions process, has been fined $750,000 for what state officials said Tuesday was the violation of students’ privacy and the unlawful selling of their personal data — information then used to solicit students with promotional materials.
In making the announcement, New York State Attorney General Letitia James and New York State Education Department Commissioner Betty A. Rosa said, in 2019 alone, the College Board “improperly licensed” the information of more than 237,000 state students who had signed up for College Board accounts in connection with SAT, PSAT and Advanced Placement exam courses.
“Students have more than enough to be stressed about when they take college entrance exams, and they shouldn’t have to worry about their personal information being bought and sold,” James said in a statement. State law requires organizations like the College Board to protect data collected from students — and “not sell it to customers for a profit,” she added.
As Rosa said in a statement: “When the organizations we trust to provide meaningful services to our students exploit student information for profit, it violates privacy laws as well as the public trust. We will continue to ensure that every student’s information is appropriately utilized and protected.”
The attorney general’s office said the College Board “solicited” students to provide information, such as their GPA — or, grade-point average — as well as their anticipated course of study, their interest in a religiously affiliated college or religious activities, and their parents’ “level of income” during the administration of PSAT, SAT and AP exams, as well as when students signed up for a College Board online account. Between 2018-2022, the attorney general’s office said, the College Board licensed New York student data to more than 1,000 institutions — receiving what was termed only as “significant revenue” from the data of New York students who took those exams during the school day.
The investigation also found the College Board used the student data for its own marketing and made information available through its operation of Student Search Service. That service licenses data collected from students, including their names, contact information, ethnicity, GPAs and test scores — making that information available to colleges and scholarship programs to use for recruiting students, according to information provided by the attorney general’s office.
Founded in 1900, the College Board “pioneered” standardized tests such as the SAT and AP exam, according to its website — and also “develops curricula and other educational programs intended to promote college readiness.” A membership organization that includes more than 6,000 colleges, universities, school districts, high schools and scholarship organizations, the College Board says it reaches more than 7 million students on an annual basis, “helping them navigate the path from high school to college and career.”
It noted in a statement Tuesday that in 2022, before the state investigation, it discontinued search opt-ins for in-school testing in New York at the request of the New York State Education Department.
In its response to the attorney general’s announcement, the College Board says while it “disagrees with the state’s interpretation” of state education Law 2-D — the 2014 law it argued targets emerging technology companies “with no evident application to standardized testing” — it “is pleased to have resolved this investigation” and remains “committed to educational opportunity and success for the students of New York State.”
John Valenti, a reporter at Newsday since 1981, has been honored nationally by the Associated Press and Society of the Silurians for investigative, enterprise and breaking news reporting, as well as column writing, and is the author of “Swee'pea,” a book about former New York playground basketball star Lloyd Daniels. Valenti is featured in the Emmy Award-winning ESPN 30-for-30 film “Big Shot.”
