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ManagedMethods Becomes a 2021 Data Privacy Day Champion

Announcing Our Commitment to Raising Awareness About the Importance of Safeguarding K-12 School District Data

BOULDER, COLO.—January 28, 2021—ManagedMethods, the leading Google Workspace and Microsoft 365 cybersecurity, student safety and compliance platform for K-12 school districts, today announced the company’s commitment to Data Privacy Day by registering as a Champion for the campaign. As a Champion, ManagedMethods recognizes and supports the principle that all organizations, including school districts, share the responsibility of being conscientious stewards of personal information.

“ManagedMethods is on a mission to make schools safer. Becoming a Data Privacy Champion further proves our commitment to protecting students and staff,” said Charlie Sander, Chief Executive Officer at ManagedMethods. “We are proud to join the National Cyber Security Alliance and many other great organizations in this cause to bring awareness to online privacy.”

Data Privacy Day is a global effort – taking place annually on January 28 – that generates awareness about the importance of privacy, highlights easy ways to protect personal information and reminds organizations that privacy is good for business. This year, the National Cyber Security Alliance (NCSA) is encouraging businesses to “Respect Privacy”, which advocates for holding organizations responsible for keeping individuals’ personal information safe from unauthorized access and ensuring fair, relevant and legitimate data collection and processing. ManagedMethods encourages school districts to do the same with their current and future edtech vendor partners.

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According to a Pew Research Center study, 79% of U.S. adults report being concerned about the way their data is being used by companies. As technology evolves and the pandemic continues to influence how students and staff interact with businesses online, data collection practices are becoming increasingly unavoidable, making it imperative that companies act responsibly.

“In recent years, we’ve seen the impact of more global awareness surrounding the abuse of consumer data, thanks to sweeping privacy measures like GDPR and CPRA,” said Kelvin Coleman, Executive Director, NCSA. “And while legislative backing is key to reinforcing accountability for poor data privacy practices, one major goal of Data Privacy Day is to build awareness among businesses about the benefits of an ethical approach to data privacy measures separate from legal boundaries.”

The NCSA has offered up the following tips to help guide businesses and school districts to better data privacy practices, such as:

  • If you collect it, protect it: Data breaches not only lead to great financial loss, but a loss in reputation and trust. Follow reasonable security measures to keep individuals’ personal information safe from inappropriate and unauthorized access. Make sure the personal data you collect is processed in a fair manner and only collected for relevant and legitimate purposes.
  • Consider adopting a privacy framework: Build privacy into your district by researching and adopting a privacy framework to help you manage risk and create a culture of privacy in your organization.
  • Conduct an assessment: Understand which privacy laws and regulations apply to your district. Educate your employees and students about their—and your—district’s obligations to protecting personal information.
  • Transparency builds trust: Be open and honest about how you collect, use and share the personal information of your district’s stakeholders. Think about how staff and students may expect their data to be used and design settings to protect their information by default. Communicate clearly and concisely to the public what privacy means to your district and the steps you take to achieve and maintain privacy.
  • Maintain oversight of partners and vendors: If someone provides services on your behalf, you are also responsible for how they collect and use your staff and students’ personal information.

ManagedMethods is committed to keeping student data private and your district data secure. K-12 school districts use ManagedMethods to help achieve compliance with FERPA, COPPA, CIPA, and other state and local student data privacy, data security, and cyber safety regulations. ManagedMethods participates in the iKeepSafe Safe Harbor program, is a signatory of the Student Privacy Pledge, and an A4L Student Data Privacy Consortium (SDPC) approved vendor. ManagedMethods does not collect or store any student information, nor do ManagedMethods employees view any information without the explicit request of district administrators in the context of a customer support ticket.

Download our EdTech Vendor Security & Compliance Evaluation Checklist to help you evaluate third-party apps and other types of EdTech your teachers or students request. The checklist also provides standards that you can use in your evaluation, along with your own requirements, to determine if a vendor is a champion of data privacy.

About Data Privacy Day

Data Privacy Day began in the United States and Canada in January 2008 as an extension of the Data Protection Day celebration in Europe. Data Protection Day commemorates the Jan. 28, 1981, signing of Convention 108, the first legally binding international treaty dealing with privacy and protection. NCSA, the nation’s leading nonprofit, public-private partnership promoting cybersecurity and privacy education and awareness, leads the effort in North America each year.

EdTech Vendor Security & Compliance Evaluation Checklist

The post ManagedMethods Becomes a 2021 Data Privacy Day Champion appeared first on ManagedMethods.

*** This is a Security Bloggers Network syndicated blog from ManagedMethods authored by Jake Kasowski. Read the original post at: https://managedmethods.com/blog/2021-data-privacy-day-champion/