EAGLE SCOUT | ISSUE NO. 21-17

NEWS | NYC Teacher's Social Security numbers exposed
20 Aug 2021

UNITED STATES – A data breach involving teachers’ personal information was discovered by students of Brooklyn Technical High School and reported last January. It concerned a publicly accessible Google drive containing documents uploaded by students and staff. More recently, it was discovered that the exposed data included social security numbers and salary information. READ HERE 
 

NEWS | Google faces another attempt to revive claims
over students' privacy violations
25 Aug 2021

UNITED STATES – Google is urging an appellate court dismissing a petition filed by a New Mexico Attorney over claims that the company violated federal privacy children’s policy in its educational products. The battle dates back to last year, when it was alleged that Google’s G Suite and Chromebooks for students collect a host of data from students, without parental consent. READ HERE
 

NEWS | Educational publisher fined for data breach cover-up
17 Aug 2021

UNITED KINGDOM – London-based educational publisher Pearson was fined by the US Securities and Exchange Commission for purposely misleading investors over a cyber-attack. The incident, which involved student data log-in and admin credentials relating to school accounts being stolen, was referred to by Pearson as a mere “hypothetical risk”.  READ HERE 
 

NEWS | Data breach exposes college student requests
for COVID vaccine exemptions
24 Aug 2021

UNITED STATES – A request by California State University students to be exempted from COVID-19 vaccination based on religious grounds was exposed in a data breach. The request, along with the students’ personal information, was posted on an anonymous internet message board. READ HERE
 

NEWS | NPC orders takedown of online lending apps due to data privacy issues
25 Aug 2021

PHILIPPINES – The National Privacy Commission’s ongoing investigation of four lending apps (i.e., JuanHand, Lemon Loan, CashJeep, and Pesopop) has led to a takedown order. The probe came about after the agency received numerous complaints against the apps due to their supposed excessive and unauthorized use of their users’ personal data. READ HERE