Privacy and Security

EDUCAUSE Policy Topic: Privacy and Security
Staff Contact: Rodney Petersen
See Rodney's Blog

There are a range of information technology challenges and policy concerns that hover around the topics of privacy, security, and identity and access management. Although privacy and security are at times competing interests, they are increasingly viewed as complementary topics in both the public policy and campus policy space. Fair information practice principles anticipate that private information will be secure. Security frameworks strike to protect confidential information. Identity and access management has also emerged as a critically important ingredient to both protect privacy and secure information systems. These topics also insinuate the respective roles of the institution as the steward of information entrusted to them with a corresponding set of responsibilities and individuals who as consumers have a stake in gaining greater control over their personal information. As campuses work to structure policies and procedures that balances these rights and responsibilities, policymakers are also considering the appropriate legal frameworks that include both obligations and incentives.