A McHenry County College vendor sent student names, Social Security numbers and other personal information to three unidentified community colleges, according to letters sent to students dated July 31st.
The vendor was Ellucian, which prides itself on “transparency” and describes itself as follows:
“Ellucian helps education institutions thrive in an open and dynamic world.
“We deliver a broad portfolio of technology solutions, developed in collaboration with a global education community, and provide strategic guidance to help education institutions of all kinds navigate change, achieve greater transparency, and drive efficiencies.
“More than 2,400 institutions in 40 countries around the world look to Ellucian for the ideas and insights that will move education forward, helping people everywhere discover their futures through learning.”
The letter you see below was forwarded to McHenry County Blog by MCC student Melissa Denker.
Melissa Denker
Denker is the elected Republican Precinct Committeeman for Dunham Township and the President of the McHenry County Young Republicans. She has a blog that can be found here.
When asked for a comment she sent the following:
“I’m very disappointed and concerned that my personal information could have ended up in the wrong hands.
“I understand that people make mistakes, but I feel that this is a situation that needs to be further addressed.
“I will be taking the steps of calling the Federal Trade Commission and Consumer Credit report to make sure this mishap does not negatively affect me.
“I highly recommend my peers to take the same steps.
“These days keeping personal information private is extremely difficult.
“I feel MCC should take the proper steps in going through with their promises of keeping my personal information secure”
Letter to McHenry County College student Melissa Denker informing her that her Social Security number has been sent to three community colleges.
If there has been public discussion of this breach of security, it has not been at the last two Board meetings.
Ellucian has been asked
“for the names of the three other colleges which received MCC student info, the number of MCC students involved, how you intend to compensate the college or students for this action.”
As with the college, the request for information was made after the close of business Friday and no reply was received by the time this article was published.
Forty-four minutes after the request was made to the MCC Public Information Officer, the following response was received,
“Thank you for your message. I am currently out of the office and will respond on Monday, August 12.”
So they’ve known about this since at least July 31 and have taken no action to determine the extent of the damage, to alert the media, or to let their own board members know.
Wow!
Ironic.
Article is about mishandling of personal information.
Cal posts the young women’s MCC form letter online with her mailing address intact for everyone to see.
@Brent my address is publicly visible on the County clerks website.
The burden should fall on the vendor Ellucian to purchase a service such as Lifelock for the students whom were breached for a period of 3 years or so.
This vendor is involved in many many schools in Illinois.
There are others as well- with a goal of tracking at least 400 data points on each child, from kindergarten onward (or preschool, if preschool becomes required).
There has been debate on whether the schools receive money, or Ellucian receives money based on what happens with that shared info.
However, even with HIPPA, information, even the most personal information, is now or will soon be online and shared with numerous government agencies.
But, this information, especially the social security numbers, seems like a legal issue- it doesn’t sound like written permission was given by students, unless it was tiny print somewhere…or a blanket permission from the school.