Alma Mater As Big Brother: Tracking students

I noted this article a little while ago, but forgot to blog about it. The proposal is raising some concern among privacy folks. Canadians may be surprised to hear that we already have this database in Canada ... and it uses the Social Insurance Number as part of the tracking code. (I'll post a cite or a reference to the database, if I can remember where I saw it first.)

Alma Mater As Big Brother (washingtonpost.com):

"A proposal by the Education Department would force every college and university in America to report all their students' Social Security numbers and other information about each individual -- including credits earned, degree plan, race and ethnicity, and grants and loans received -- to a national databank. The government will record every student, regardless of whether he or she receives federal aid, in the databank.

The government's plan is to track students individually and in full detail as they complete their post-secondary education. The threat to our students' privacy is of grave concern, and the government has not satisfactorily explained why it wants to collect individual information...."