By Anthony Whitacre

By Anthony Whitacre

You ask who I am.

Well honestly, it is none of your business unless I tell you.

Personal information is one of the most protected sanctities that a person holds onto and even then it can get stolen or misused.

How do we know that our student information is actually protected?

The people working in the counseling office, library, admissions and teachers all have access to your personal information.

With all these different people and places having access to your info how can you not be paranoid.

Then I guess all these people working here are good honest people who have never cheated on a test in high school or grade school. Never lied before…okay I’m babbling.

The point is how do we know that our information is truly safe?

“We’re very careful with who we have working up front for us,” Department chair Judy Haugh said.

The counseling office is set up so that only certain people have access to certain personal screens that show information. There is no one person who has access to all the different privacy screens.

They also do not release information over the phone to anyone not even relatives.

It’s a good thing to because how would they know who was on the other line. For all they would know it could be some serial killer looking for the student.

Also with the exception of councelors not many staff working within the counseling office have access to the private information.

“Seems like everything is well protected,” Haugh said.

Yet what if there was information stolen or misused? How would they deal with a student who had used their status to get personal information such as a phone number or grades?

First if a complaint was made to the Department Chair it would be investigated immediately.

The offender would be counseled and their history in the work place would be reviewed.

If found guilty the ending result would be immediate termination.

So it’s your word against somebody elses. If your complaint was valid and true then justice will be served.

According to Rafal Helszer, who works in the couseling office, there has been no incidents regarding misuse of personal information from any of the students who work there.

Nobody in today’s society steals private information and gets away with it.

To put even more of your fears to rest every student is protected under the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act.

Also known as FERPA.

FERPA allows the release of student information based on its regulations and restrictions.

Which are?

Students have the ability to request that their information remain confidential.

If you don’t want your information shown then you shouldn’t be worried about having it out there.

Yeah! So you don’t have to worry about keeping your personal information getting out.

It seems well safe guarded within its digital coding. Yet who knows how far someone will go to reach you.