Dear FERPA Professor,
I received the following from a faculty member and would love some help with the question:
I have a student who has an academic accommodation to use a recorder in class. When I met with this student, they shared that the recorder that they have runs the recordings through ChatGPT and then generates a PDF summary of the class. This raised some data privacy + FERPA concerns that students in the class would have their comments during class discussions recorded and then run through ChatGPT. I'd love to get some advice on this situation to ensure that I'm staying compliant.
Regards,
Ms. Guya
Dear Ms. Guya,
FERPA does not protect the confidentiality of information in general. Rather, FERPA applies to the disclosure of information derived from tangible “education records.” Also, FERPA would not prohibit a student from recording in a class. This is because FERPA would generally prohibit a teacher from disclosing personally identifiable information from a student’s education records to other students in the classroom. However, while FERPA does not prohibit recording classes, it is up to the school whether the practice is permitted or State law.
The Student Privacy Policy Office has not issued guidance on the applicability of FERPA to A.I., including for “ChatGPT” or “Chatbots.” The SPPO recognizes the emergence of the use of AI in the education environment and has indicated that it anticipates providing some resources moving forward. In the interim, to the extent that the A.I. vendor is providing a service to the college or university and may need access to PII from the student education records, the SPPO suggests that the following guidance documents may be helpful:
I hope this is helpful in answering your questions