NEW YORK (1010 WINS/WCBS 880) – The Office of the Attorney General announced a settlement on Tuesday with College Board, a non-profit institution that develops and administers standardized tests, after it was found to have collected and unlawfully sold the personal data of students.
New York Attorney General Letitia James and New York State Education Department Commissioner Betty A. Rosa announced a $750,000 settlement with College Board which came after an investigation found that the organization collected students' personal information of those who took the PSAT, SAT, and AP exams, then sold this data to colleges, scholarship programs, and other customers who used it to recruit students for their programs, according to the release.
“Students have more than enough to be stressed about when they take college entrance exams, and shouldn’t have to worry about their personal information being bought and sold,” James said.
According to an investigation, in 2019, College Board shared the information of over 237,000 New York students who took their exams.
They also sent out promotional stuff to students who simply signed up for their accounts about exams or AP courses.
“New York law requires organizations like College Board to protect the data they collect from students when they take their exams in school, not sell it to customers for a profit,” James said.
College Board offered the PSAT and SAT exams during the school day to New York schools and school districts and to pay for the students’ exam fees. Since then more than 20 New York schools or school districts including the New York City Department of Education, which operates more than 500 high schools have signed with them.
An investigation by the OAG found that before June 2022, College Board during the PSAT, SAT, and AP exams, and when students signed up for online accounts, asked students to give information like their GPA, courses they plan to take, interests in religiously-affiliated colleges, religious activities, and their parents' income level.
Providing the data was optional for students, they were still geared towards participating in the “urgent context of an important exam and were encouraged to sign up because it would connect them with scholarship and college opportunities.”
From 2018 to 2022, the organization shared students’ data with over 1,000 institutions through Search and made money from the data it provided, according to the investigation.
The investigation also found that the data was used for College Board’s marketing. And, until 2023, when New York students signed up for the AP program, they were also asked if they wanted to get College Board marketing stuff.
Under New York law, “it is illegal to use student data obtained under a contract with a New York educational agency for commercial or marketing purposes,” James said.
As part of the settlement, College Board will pay $750,000 in fines and and is barred from using New York student data for marketing or commercial purposes, including information gathered during PSAT, SAT, or AP exams. They're also prohibited from soliciting students for Search or similar programs during these exams.
“When the organizations we trust to provide meaningful services to our students exploit student information for profit, it violates privacy laws as well as the public trust,” Rosa said.