College Board to pay $750K for selling New York students’ SAT data

New York announced Tuesday that the College Board and the state reached a $750,000 settlement over that state’s claims that the SAT administrator sold students’ personal information.

New York Attorney General Letitia James and New York State Education Department Commissioner Betty A. Rosa announced the settlement on Tuesday. As part of the agreement, the College Board will pay $750,000 in penalties and will be barred from monetizing data of New York students through its contracts with schools and school districts.

New York alleged that the College Board collected students’ personal information after they took the SATs, PSATs or AP exams. The state said the College Board “licensed this data to colleges, scholarship programs, and other customers who used it to solicit students to participate in their programs.”

“Students have more than enough to be stressed about when they take college entrance exams, and shouldn’t have to worry about their personal information being bought and sold,” James said in a statement. “New York law requires organizations like College Board to protect the data they collect from students when they take their exams in school, not sell it to customers for a profit.”

The announcement claimed the College Board, through its Student Search Service, solicited students to provide information while the students were taking the exams or signing up for an online account.

New York noted that while it was optional to sign up for the Student Search Service that would connect students with colleges and scholarship opportunities, students were asked to do so “in the urgent context of an important exam.”

The personal information included the students’ GPA, anticipated course of study, interest in religious activities and parents’ income level, according to the announcement. New York said an investigation conducted by James’s office later found out that the College Board used the collected data for marketing purposes, which the office said is illegal to do so.

The College Board said in a statement that it disagreed with “the state’s interpretation” of the law at issue here.

“Nevertheless, officials with the New York State Education Department and attorney general’s office have taken a different legal position on the interpretation of the law, and we fully cooperated with their inquiry,” the statement read.

“It’s important to note there is no finding that Search harmed students or that colleges or scholarship organizations ever misused student information,” the statement continued.

The College Board noted in its statement that the Student Search Service “connected millions of New York students with nonprofit colleges and scholarships.”

The organization also said that students who opt into the search service have 29 percent more offers of admission, adding that underrepresented minority students receive 65 percent more admission offers and first-generation students get 55 percent more offers.