FC: WSJ: College survey firm surreptitiously sells student data

[Declan McCullagh <declan () well com>]

[Seems to be a matter of either schools not reading the company's privacy 
policy before handing out surveys -- or not asking what some of the 
"your-data-will-be-sold-to-other-organizations" phrases in the contract 
meant. In any case, this is, or should be, a matter of plain ol'contract 
law. Note to schools: Read the fine print next time. --Declan]

---

From: "Xeni Jardin" <xeni () xeni net>
To: "Declan McCullagh" <declan () well com>
Subject: College-Survey firm quietly sells students' digital data to 
online+offline marketers
Date: Mon, 3 Dec 2001 19:45:11 -0800

Among the companies that reportedly purchase data from American Student
List, the company named in today's WSJ piece: "Gillette Co.; credit-card
purveyors American Express Co. and Capital One Financial Corp.; Kaplan
Inc., the Washington Post Co. unit that is the largest admissions
test-coaching chain; Primedia Inc.'s Seventeen Magazine; and Columbia
House Record Club, which is owned by AOL Time Warner Inc. and Sony
Corp."

Check out American Student List's web site <http://www.studentlist.com/>
for details on what they sell, to whom, and how. Among their offerings:
"NEW! Opt-in E-mail Addresses. Over 2 million teens, college students
and young adults ranging in age from 16 to 25, who have opted-in to
receive information on products and services through e-mail
solicitation. 100,000 monthly hotline updates. "

--XJ

<snip>
Marketers obtain teenagers' names and addresses from many other sources,
such as magazine-subscription lists and Web sites. What distinguishes
National Research is that it gathers student names in a classroom survey
that many school officials believe will be made available only to
educational institutions, but which then is sold to commercial
marketers.

National Research has also made its presence widely felt as it competes
with the influential College Board to sell student information to
colleges and as it lobbies Congress to kill legislation that would
restrict collection of some student information.
(...)

National Research's president, Don M. Munce, says it has never hidden
its commercial ties from high schools or colleges who inquire about
them. But few do. Its survey includes a "privacy statement" explaining
that responses are "used by colleges, universities and other
organizations to assist students and their families." Mr. Munce says
referring to "other organizations" is sufficient disclosure of National
Research's commercial ties. He adds that the privacy statement was
designed to be brief because "teachers are very busy."
</snip>

----------------------------------
December 3, 2001
College-Survey Firm Quietly Peddles
Student Information to Big Marketer
By DANIEL GOLDEN
Staff Reporter of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL

<http://interactive.wsj.com/articles/SB1007345870354311480.htm>

Each year, more than one million U.S. high-school students take time out
of their school day to fill out a survey asking their names, addresses,
grade-point averages, races, religions and social views. The
organization that sponsors the survey, the National Research Center for
College and University Admissions, tells the schools it will broaden
students' higher-education options by distributing their names and
profiles to hundreds of colleges and universities across the country.

But colleges aren't the only recipients of the survey results. Generally
unknown to high schools, colleges, students and their parents, National
Research for at least a decade has also sold the personal information it
gathers to the country's leading supplier of young people's names to
commercial marketers, American Student List LLC.

American Student List pays for the information by helping to fund the
National Research survey. American Student List then sells student names
and other information to companies that solicit students for a wide
array of goods and services. Companies that buy student names from
American Student List include shaving giant Gillette Co.; credit-card
purveyors American Express Co. and Capital One Financial Corp.; Kaplan
Inc., the Washington Post Co. unit that is the largest admissions
test-coaching chain; Primedia Inc.'s Seventeen Magazine; and Columbia
House Record Club, which is owned by AOL Time Warner Inc. and Sony Corp.

Huge Influence

>From its base in Lee's Summit, Mo., National Research -- a little-known
company with just 30 employees -- has become a hugely influential force
in a burgeoning industry surrounding college admissions in which
companies and colleges buy names and detailed information about young
people. Publicly presenting itself as a service to students and
colleges, National Research doesn't readily disclose its role in helping
commercial marketers pitch their products to an impressionable and
highly valued audience.

Marketers obtain teenagers' names and addresses from many other sources,
such as magazine-subscription lists and Web sites. What distinguishes
National Research is that it gathers student names in a classroom survey
that many school officials believe will be made available only to
educational institutions, but which then is sold to commercial
marketers.

National Research has also made its presence widely felt as it competes
with the influential College Board to sell student information to
colleges and as it lobbies Congress to kill legislation that would
restrict collection of some student information.

Many teachers and educational officials express anger and disbelief when
told that National Research sells student names to commercial marketers.
"It's so disgusting," says Barbara Henry, admissions director at
Oglethorpe University in Atlanta, which buys student information from
National Research. "Everybody's upset when their children are solicited"
without parental approval.

[...] 




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