The University of California has a transparency problem. Thanks to UC Berkeley, that’s about to change.
Berkeley became the first school in the country earlier this year to release a transparency report disclosing the number of government requests for the data of students, faculty and staff that use the school’s electronic communication tools.
Berkeley is following a recent trend of companies that have released annual transparency reports, such as Facebook, Google and Apple, to gain goodwill with customers who have privacy concerns in the wake of the Snowden leaks. Companies with electronic communication products such as Gmail, WhatsApp, and iMessage are periodically asked by government agencies to give them the data from customers’ communication without their consent.
The same circumstances exist for communication tools provided by universities, but until Berkeley’s report, the number of government requests for data have remained secret.
While it is an important step in the right direction, it is also overdue. When it comes to universities, privacy should be an even greater concern. To make sure members of the system feel secure, and to create an example for other schools, the University of California should make transparency reports mandatory across all campuses and make them more detailed than Berkeley’s report.
Berkeley only makes up a small portion of the UC system. There are hundreds of thousands of students and faculty in the UC, and significantly more active communication accounts, all of which are subject to non-consensual disclosures. This means that the vast majority of UC students, faculty and staff are left in the dark about how their campuses handle government data requests.
The transparency reports need to evolve to fix this issue and include some critical information regarding the data requests to improve transparency. In addition to the number of requests for data, there should be information about what kinds of requests get granted for situations in which it is not mandated by law. The UC should also disclose the breakdown of requests by government agency whenever it is not restricted by law. This would give the public insight into the most common kinds of requests being made so it can assess how scrutinizing the University is being in granting requests.
The other advantage to having a UC-wide protocol for transparency reports is that any future improvements to the reports would reach all campuses instantly. Otherwise, we might be stuck with a hodgepodge of transparency reporting across campuses where how much you know about the privacy of your university communications depends on the school you attend.
At UC Berkeley, the total number of the government’s requests in the last year were relatively few, at about 15 nonconsensual requests, but that is still more requests per account than many private firms. This means that privacy concerns are at least as important when using University communication tools.
It’s not surprising that these kinds of reports are not a priority for universities, since students hardly consider privacy concerns when comparing one university to another and so universities have had less pressure to adopt more transparent policies. The fact that the university’s students and faculty are not customers does not make it less accountable for their privacy.
The sad truth is that the only reason the information is kept secret is a lack of effort. There is no real disadvantage to the university to publishing the information, and it shouldn’t be difficult to make transparency reports a systemwide protocol.
In education, students and faculty should have peace of mind when it comes to their communications with each other and professors. Nonconsensual shared data is not always a bad thing, but without transparency reports, we have no way of knowing whether protocols are being abused.
Student privacy should remain a top priority for universities and considering the fact that there is no disadvantage to releasing more information, there is little reason not to boost transparency regarding student and faculty data.
It’s great that Berkeley shed some light on government requests for information, but the fact that it is the only school to have done so is more than a little disappointing. There is no reason that the information about government requests for data at public universities should be out of reach.
Despite the tardiness, it’s great that UC Berkeley has paved the way for other universities to become more transparent, and hopefully other schools, including those out the UC system, will catch on sooner rather than later.