Education
Education

State education official assigned to protect student data

The Facebook headquarters in Palo Alto, Calif. in 2012. The year before, Facebook had settled charges the Federal Trade Commission had leveled that the site repeatedly made data public, despite promising privacy. Paul Sakuma / AP
The Facebook headquarters in Palo Alto, Calif. in 2012. The year before, Facebook had settled charges the Federal Trade Commission had leveled that the site repeatedly made data public, despite promising privacy. Paul Sakuma / AP
By Ty Tagami
June 3, 2015

The Georgia Department of Education has given a technology manager another responsibility: protecting student data.

The move by State Superintendent Richard Woods this week comes in response to House Bill 414, the Student Data, Privacy, Accessibility and Transparency Act. Georgia lawmakers passed the law this year out of concern about student privacy.

Levette Williams, Technology Management Director for the Georgia Department of Education, has overseen the collection and reporting of K-12 data for the agency since 2000. Now, she’ll have an extra title: Chief Privacy Officer. Along with the title comes the responsibility to ensure the protection of student privacy as schools continue to adopt and utilize technology and social media in the classroom, Georgia DOE said in a statement.

About the Author

Ty Tagami is a staff writer for The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Since joining the newspaper in 2002, he has written about everything from hurricanes to homelessness. He has deep experience covering local government and education, and can often be found under the Gold Dome when lawmakers meet or in a school somewhere in the state.

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