This article reports that several colleges and universities like Purdue University are mining data they have about students to try to improve retention. The institutions analyze years' worth of data on which students did well and which did poorly, and what variables--whether they be SAT scores, financial-aid status, or attendance at the dining…

This chapter describes the relationship between federal student privacy laws and state privacy laws, and identifies the changes in the federal law over the last ten years affecting disclosure to parents of college students. Recent litigation on health emergencies is outlined and the limited rights of college students not yet eighteen years of age…

This article describes a forensic DNA science laboratory exercise for advanced high school and introductory college level biology courses. Students use a commercial genotyping kit and genetic analyzer or gene sequencer to analyze DNA recovered from a fictitious crime scene. DNA profiling and STR genotyping are outlined. DNA extraction, PCR, and…

By providing the public with online computing facilities, librarians make available a world of information resources beyond their traditional print materials. Internet-connected computers in libraries greatly enhance the opportunity for patrons to enjoy the benefits of the digital age. Unfortunately, as hackers become more sophisticated and…

Videos of teachers that students taped in secrecy are all over online sites like YouTube and MySpace. Angry teachers, enthusiastic teachers, teachers clowning around, singing, and even dancing are captured, usually with camera phones, for the whole world to see. Some students go so far as to create elaborately edited videos, shot over several…

The concept of "publishing" has changed again, just in the last few years, due to YouTube, Blogger, Second Life, Flickr, and other new social networking tools (John Marshall Law School, 2005). Whether they are making it possible for everyone to view a video on YouTube on how to install a hard drive on a Mac, add a collaborative student writing…

In requesting after action reports--Pentagon-prepared summaries of interviews between reporters and Pentagon officials--investigative reporter Jack Taylor both aroused Pentagon opposition and created a rift between the Pentagon press corps and outside reporters. To investigate whether the full-time Pentagon press corps was reporting as…

As part of a symposium on the provision of architectural privacy within the classroom, this paper reviews the limited research that is available and discusses the importance of viewing classroom settings as ecological units with both physical and behavioral components. Whether children prefer to use private facilities, and whether they benefit…

This paper examines how the U.S. Privacy Protection Commission functioned. Examined are its basic authority, procedures and policies, operational plan, distinctive features, staffing, and results of recommendations. Created by an act of Congress in 1974, the Commission was authorized to examine all actual and potential invasions of privacy in the…

The right of privacy versus the public's right to know as protected by the First Amendment is discussed in this paper. A formula is suggested based on Alexander Meiklejohn's interpretation that information about any individual, either a public official or a private person, would be protected as part of the public domain of knowledge if it is…

Biofeedback training is a relatively new procedure that is being incorporated into the counseling services of psychologists and counselors. If the highest professional standards and the appropriate safeguards for clients' welfare are to be maintained, careful attention should be given to the ethical and professional issues involved. (Author)

Modern technological devices, along with advances in the behavioral sciences, can threaten the privacy of students. Technology that can reveal innermost thoughts and motives, or can change basic values and behaviors, must be used judiciously and only by qualified professionals under strictly controlled conditions. (Author)

Describes the impact of an Arizona state law that prohibited the release of any information about a student without a parent's signed authorization on school yearbook production. (KS)

Discusses the law concerning the testing of job applicants for substance abuse, pointing out differences between private and public employers and union and nonunion organizations. Concludes that the law is still not settled in this area. (CH)

The second of three articles on abusive data collection and usage practices and their effect on personal privacy, discusses the evolution of data protection laws worldwide, and compares the scope, major provisions, and enforcement components of the laws. A chronology of key events in the regulation of computer databanks in included. (1 reference)…