DATA PRIVACY IN EDUCATION SECTOR – ISSUES AND MEASURES

Abstract

In the current age of internet, almost all kinds of activities have become online, including teaching and learning, which has become even more prevalent with the advent of pandemic. A lot of data, including personal data, are now gathered and stored digitally. This is equally true for an educational institute where data of young students are stored. Ensuring the privacy of such data is the responsibility of the education institution. Educational sector tops the list of most affected industry in terms of malware attack, and it is equally targeted for ransomware attacks. Data breach is a serious threat in the educational sector, and data breach is likely to lead to the loss of personal data of students since their data are most prevalent in this sector. Data breach will take a sinister look when data breach leads to cyber harassment such as cyberbullying and cyber stalking. However, some precautionary measures would help in combating such attacks. Data breach or theft of personal information of students is not a sole concern of the individual but equal responsibility of the management of educational institutions. In this paper, we tried to assess how grave the situation of data security in educational firms is and what can be the consequences if some measures are not undertaken. The paper then emphasizes on the basic precautions the educational institutes and the young users can take to protect their data.