By SOFIA HU
The Cornell University College Republicans and the Cornell Democrats have come together to oppose New York State’s adoption and funding of inBloom, a non-profit that seeks to consolidate student information into a single database. “This is a strong show of bipartisanship and makes it explicit that we, as students, believe in standing up for our rights to data privacy and nondiscrimination,” said Michael Alter ’16, the organizer of Cornell campaign against inBloom. Those behind inBloom plan to collect and store up to 400 data fields of information on students in New York State schools, according to The New York Times. These data fields include K-12 students’ grades, attendance records, disciplinary information and family relationships.“inBloom has not given assurances that if data breaches ever did occur that they would be required to notify those whose privacy was violated.” — Michael Alter ’16
Cornell students from both sides of the political spectrum have criticized the organization, alleging that it intrudes on student data privacy rights and collects information that may be irrelevant to improving students’ quality of education. “Why are certain data points collected… and what purpose do they serve in creating these individualized educational experiences?” said Kyle Ezzedine ’14, chair of the Cornell Republicans.