With the campus move towards cloud storage services like Box and Google Drive, many of us have questions about what is safe to store there.  According to Mark Cather, the Chief Information Security Officer for the campus, he says that both BOX and Google Drive are acceptable locations for storing your FERPA related data (student related data like class schedules).   Remember though, if you don't have to store this data, then don't.   Google Drive is not suitable for storing private data like financial information or social security numbers.

What is FERPA?  Here is the statement from the REX (Report Exchange) website.  I would advise anyone who has questions about FERPA, to please follow that link at the end of the next paragraph.

UMBC complies with the Federal Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA). In general, FERPA serves to protect the privacy of student education records. Specifically, FERPA limits the release of any information from a student’s education record without prior written consent from the student. FERPA allows for the disclosure of those records, without consent, to school officials with legitimate educational interests. For more information on FERPA visit: http://www2.ed.gov/policy/gen/guid/fpco/ferpa/index.html.

Thanks for Reading!