The University of Kansas sent an e-mail to 119 failing students last week, alerting them they were in danger of losing their financial aid. Totally normal, right?
Well, almost. It seems the Financial Aid Office sent out the collective missive with all 119 students’ e-mail addresses in the To: field instead of creating a distribution list that would hide identities. Now those students all know who’s in the same shaky boat.
“It was a completely inadvertent, unintentional mistake,” said university spokesman Todd Cohen. “It was our error, our mistake and we deeply regret it.”
One of the failing student, Nancy George said the mistake was the equivalent of releasing a person’s grades without permission, a violation of the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act.
Cohen noted the financial aid department is getting training on privacy and security issues related to e-mails. Well, it’s a little that for that now, eh?
Via USA Today
