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A major concern in a new research program is that it asks kids for Social Security numbers.

September 1, 2009

As legions of joyful children flock eagerly back to school (oh, wait, that's in another universe), the Maine Civil Liberties Union is warning that along with giving up their summertime freedom, kids may be asked to give up an essential element of their privacy, too.

The problem is a new Maine law allowing the state Department of Education to track student performance both before and after graduation.

So, what could be wrong with finding out how kids did in class and then linking that to their success either in college or in the job market?

Nothing's wrong with the goal, the civil liberties watchdog says, but the method is problematic at best and highly detrimental at worst.

That's because the tool the department wants to use for this tracking and evaluation plan is a student's Social Security number, which will be linked to data in the Department of Labor to provide follow-up data after leaving public education.

As everyone with even the slightest familiarity with the burgeoning problem of identity theft knows by now, a person's Social Security number is one of the key pieces of information thieves need to commit an act of piracy on a private life.

When even Ben Bernanke, the head of the Federal Reserve, can be a target of identity theft, nobody is safe and everybody should be guarding such data with extreme caution.

Theft isn't the only issue: "Tracking student data, including incidents of prohibited behavior, could have a negative effect ... on students' ability to obtain housing, employment or credit," the MCLU noted.

However, under the new law, giving out one's Social Security number is an option, not a requirement. That makes it an "opt-in" program, meaning participation requires a direct decision by the affected parties. By contrast, "opt-out" programs would require everyone to participate unless they decided not to. But that's not the case here.

So, the MCLU says, parents and students should recall that no system is foolproof, and think long and hard before giving up such a central key to one's private life.