Schools often tell parents that they take record management and privacy seriously, but in practice, their efforts can be inadequate. In most schools, these information sources are maintained at the unsupervised discretion of the individual who requests it or manages the collection. Storage and cross-reference of these materials is rarely carried on and audited in accordance with state and federal records management guidelines, because schools have not traditionally been held accountable. Traditional information at risk includes addresses and telephone numbers, Social Security numbers, grade reports, evaluations, disciplinary notes and drug tests. Online information about student activities and interests, as well as those of their parents, are worth billions of dollars for targeted, commercial marketing and demographics studies, and also appeals to criminals.
Schools can supplement their budgets by disclosing information about students.
Schools facing limited funding may find deals from commercial establishments to be irresistible. The most innocent of relationships can create privacy issues. District schools had volunteered lists of students and their private addresses to Advanced Financial Savings Bank, which then solicited the parents and students at their homes. Across the United States, controversy surrounds Zapme, an ISP that gives free PCs and Internet access to schools in exchange for behavioral information about students. Zapme requires that schools that accept their free services consent to the monitoring of students' Internet usage.