Netsweeper and SOPPA
The Student Online Personal Protection Act, or SOPPA, is the Illinois data privacy law that regulates student data collection and use by Illinois schools, the Illinois State Board of Education, and educational technology operators.
SOPPA protects the privacy and security of student data when collected by companies operating websites, online services, or online/mobile applications primarily used for K-12 school purposes.
One of the most significant changes under SOPPA is the new requirement that Illinois school districts are prohibited from providing any personally identifiable student information, referred to as “covered information” under the Act, to any entity or individual (an “operator”) without entering into a written agreement with the operator.
Effective July 1, 2021, all Illinois school districts will be required to enter into a written agreement with educational technology operators and post a list of the operators with which the district has written agreements, copies of those written agreements, and other information about such operators on the school’s website; as well as to notify students and parents of any breach of student data by any operators of the school. You can view full details of district and operator obligations in the legislation here.
Netsweeper fully complies with SOPPA by:
- Not using any data collected via its service to target ads
- Not creating advertising profiles on students
- Not selling student information
- Not disclosing information, unless required by law or as part of the maintenance and development of its service
- Using sound information-security practices, which include encrypting data
- Deleting data that it has collected from students in a school when the school or district requests it
- Sharing data and security breaches with schools as soon as we are aware