The Chief Privacy Officer for Utah public education says that since a whistleblower’s lawsuit outed researchers at the University of Utah for overstepping student data privacy laws, things have improved.
David Sallay’s job is to ensure that schools and districts comply with state and federal student privacy laws. He says that the whistleblower’s issue involved the Utah Registry for Autism and Developmental Disabilities, or URAD.
URAD is a database that was overseen and secured by chief investigator Dr. Judith Zimmerman with the University of Utah – or so she thought, until she discovered that highly sensitive, and potentially lucrative, information was being accessed behind her back. This despite encrypted servers, and in violation of strict, legally binding contracts between the entities that collect sensitive student data (like the Utah State Board of Education), the Utah Health Department and researchers at the University of Utah.
After Zimmerman suspected the data breach, she raised alarms with higher-ups and was fired. She went on to win a whistleblower complaint in federal court for retaliatory termination, as well as damages for harm to her professional reputation and emotional distress.
For those far from the sidelines of the court battle, but involved in student privacy, Sallay says, “That got a lot of people concerned.”
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