Privacy

The Press Release

Secretary DeVos Releases New Resources for Educators, Local Leaders on K-12 Flexibilities, Student Privacy, and Educating Students with Disabilities During Coronavirus Outbreak

The Department of Education issued these Frequently Asked Questions regarding FERPA and COVID-19 [PDF].

This document was prepared to assist school officials working in consideration of COVID-19 and protecting the privacy of students’ education records.

"Understanding FERPA helps enable school officials to act quickly and with certainty when confronting challenges that affect the health or safety of students or other individuals.”

VCU is committed to preserving an environment that encourages academic and research collaboration through the responsible use of information technology resources. With the integration of technology into our everyday lives, we are faced with new threats against the security and privacy of our information. To prevent the loss and theft of our information, we must realize a shared responsibility, and collectively protect sensitive information. Protection may be governed by regulation, law, legal contracts, policies or other university considerations. Questions or comments related to university privacy can be directed to privacy@vcu.edu and misuse of information or information breaches can be reported through the VCU Helpline.

General Privacy Considerations:

To assess how to keep your information secure and private based on the information type, use VCU's Data Management System tool and the following additional guidance:

  • Sensitive information is generally health-related; social security numbers; financial (account numbers, etc); and information included in student records.
  • Electronic communications and data on a university-owned computer, or on VCU’s network resources, may be disclosed under the Freedom of Information Act and university, state and federal laws and regulations as necessary.

Handling Personal Information [PDF] (Click to view/print):

Handling Personal Information chart

How to Protect Information:

Being observant and reporting privacy breaches assist with maintaining privacy. A privacy breach may be a result of the following, which include, but are not limited to:

  • Sharing of personal passwords
  • Possible theft of electronic or paper data
  • Theft or loss of devices
  • Phishing emails and scams
  • Severe malicious software infections that lead to possible data theft
  • Unauthorized access to email or files
  • Unauthorized access to physical space or computing resources

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