CEO Soapbox: Who owns my data?
A note from FamilyID Founder & CEO, Rochelle Nemrow.
I am a parent.
Who owns the information I provide when I sign my kids up for programs and activities?
Who owns my son’s date of my birth? Or my description of my daughter’s head injury from a fall last year?
I do, of course!
It seems so obvious that it appears to be a rhetorical question. But in the past, it was practically impossible for me as a parent to retain access to and control of my own family data. It is in this spirit that I created FamilyID.
FamilyID represents a new paradigm in how families can share their personal data when signing up for programs and activities. It not only meets state and federal standards for data privacy at schools, but goes above and beyond to protect parent rights to their information.
Parents who use the FamilyID platform to register for programs have an independent relationship with FamilyID that gives them total ownership of, access to and control over their information.
This includes:
the ability to choose with whom they share information full sign-up history and program details
transparency to the information they submitted
the ability to update, correct and modify their information
the capability to use their own information to sign up for other programs and activities on the platform
a repository to store and access their own data for their own purposes
As states enact legislation to ensure the protection of student data and schools grapple with compliance, FamilyID affords both schools and parents protection and compliance without compromising the rights of either.
FamilyID does NOT use data supplied by the school from Student Information Systems or from any other student record. All data on FamilyID is provided directly by the family.
Each family enters into an independent agreement with FamilyID that is subject to the FamilyID Terms of Service and Privacy Policy that gives them full rights to their data including the ability to retain or remove their data from the platform. At no time does FamilyID claim ownership of the family’s data.
Our agreement with schools governs the school’s use of the platform and access to the data that families choose to share with them. Once a school accesses the family’s data, the school is then responsible for how it uses and shares that data to comply with applicable laws and regulations.
FamilyID is not intended to be used by children.
FamilyID does not have advertising on its site, nor does it rent, trade or sell registration information.
FamilyID works with nearly a million families and thousands of schools and program providers across the country. If a school or program provider discontinues its use of FamilyID, the families have full ownership of their personal data and therefore they alone have the right to remove or request removal of their own information. As with a lunch payment system, a school may discontinue use of the service, but I as a parent still have access to my own information and transaction history. A program provider may accept payments through an online payment system, but families have access to and ownership of their own accounts.
“FamilyID is extremely proud of its standing on the forefront of data privacy and access for families. We are fully compliant with FERPA, a signatory of the Student Privacy Pledge, and our practices have been carefully and thoroughly vetted by attorneys for school districts and state agencies in the 43 states where we serve schools and their families.”
We love nothing more than making the process of signing up for programs and activities a convenient and empowering experience for both organizations and families.
FamilyID makes you the boss of your own information. Which is just how it should be.
Rochelle Nemrow
Founder & CEO of FamilyID
