Blackboard-Facebook mash-up

So there is a Bb-Facebook mash-up available from ClassTop, called CourseFeed. ClassTop declare that the Facebook app enables students to "Browse your courses, post messages to the class, share notes – all without ever leaving Facebook. CourseFeed also alerts you when your professor posts announcements, tests, or content to Blackboard®. And you’ll get alerts when classmates post to the course wall and share notes." [http://www.facebook.com/apps/application.php?id=5243732877&b&ref=pd]

On the Facebook wall for this application one Ian Stiles notes that "The Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) is designed to protect students, not deny them the right to share educational information for certain benefits."

Whilst on the surface this may have the appearances of a killer-app, mashing-up institutional and non-institutional spaces, there are two issues that come to mind. Firstly, do students want this type of mash-up or would they rather a clear distinction between "work" or "College" and their social spaces? Secondly, the ClassTop Privacy policy raises questions.

1. Our Turnitin UK mash-up with Blackboard is licensed and is thereby governed by a strict commercial and legally-binding contract. This covers and safeguards the use of personal data, denoting that whilst iParadigms in the US is the data processor, our University is the data owner. The ClassTop Privacy Policy is very clear that it intends to collect "personal information" and that "When you register with CourseFeed and sign-in to our services, you are not anonymous to us." Moreover, they collect data so that they can offer "personalised features", which include advertising.
   
2. They also state that "When you update information, we usually keep a back-up copy of the prior version for a reasonable period of time to enable reversion to the prior version". There is no indication of what reasonable means, or for whom they need to revert this information.
3. "You post content on the site at your own risk." Clearly we can track interactions on Blackboard but not on this Facebook app. The validity of those interactions and their nature, alongside the verification of other users who may be able to see and use that information, including course content that is the IPR of the institution or a third-party, is a huge issue.
4. They are up-front about tracking usage of the site by individual users, and link this to advertising and anonymous reporting.
5. ClassTop intimate that "By providing CourseFeed with login information to courses on your school's learning management system, such as Blackboard(r), you grant CourseFeed permission to notify your classmates of availability of CourseFeed on Facebook and retrieve all course related information and content such as but not limited to files, folders, assignments, announcements, personal contact information, course roster information, grades, and calendar entries for the purpose of displaying and notifying you and classmates of online course activity through the CourseFeed interface and/or email." This appears to threaten the integrity of other classmate's data, and the institution's content. Whilst they note that "We recognize the sensitive nature of course related information and content and will maintain the same level of privacy and separation currently implemented by your school's learning management system. For example, just like in your current learning management system only you will be able to see your grades", do students have the right to share data that isn't their ow? Shouldn't ClassTop have an agreement to safeguard IPR, copyright and personal data with the institution?
6. Finally. the policy talks about allowing ClassTop staff to come into contact with user's personal data to facilitate their work, and that they have safeguards to protect information. However, other than basic information about a secure server and a firewall, the policy is silent on what these safeguards actually are.

So there are big issues here for the management and security of institutional and personal data and content. As the interface between institutional and non-institutional technologies blurs it throws these issues into stark relief, and HEIs will need to develop their own technological and human procedures to safeguard the integrity of their own information.