A preliminary study at Stanford University

The Stanford Student Computer and Network Privacy Project conducted a pilot study of computer and network related student privacy issues. As far as we know, this is the first such study to have been done on a major university campus. We address important issues that do not receive much attention, including the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act's vague definition of "student educational records" and the faulty presumption that subpoenas implicate judicial review. One of the positive side effects of the study is that it may have uncovered privacy issues that either were not known or were not given high priority by Stanford officials.Stanford is one of the better-prepared universities in the area of student privacy, and yet Stanford policies and practices manifest troublesome aspects that deserve immediate attention and require improvement. We hope to encourage other schools to similarly examine the state of student privacy on their campuses; we suspect that doing so will uncover weaknesses in student privacy protection at other universities.