SAT Administrator College Board Settles New York Claims Over Student Data, Reports Reuters

By Jonathan Stempel

NEW YORK – The College Board has agreed to a settlement of $750,000 following allegations from New York’s attorney general regarding the violation of high school students’ privacy. The attorney general claimed that the organization sold personal information collected during the SAT and other examinations.

Attorney General Letitia James stated that the College Board, a nonprofit that serves over 6,000 members, generated tens of millions of dollars from 2018 to 2022 by selling students’ information to more than 1,000 colleges and scholarship programs, which subsequently used the data for outreach efforts.

The College Board reportedly utilized its Student Search Service to sell students’ names, contact details, ethnic backgrounds, grade point averages, and test scores, despite a 2014 state education law prohibiting the commercialization of such data.

In 2019 alone, the College Board licensed the data of over 237,000 New York students who took its exams, which also include the PSAT and advanced placement tests. Additionally, the organization was accused of sending unrelated marketing materials to students.

"Students have enough to stress about when taking college entrance exams and shouldn’t have to worry about their personal information being traded," stated James in an announcement.

The settlement includes civil penalties, reimbursement, and other costs and prohibits the College Board from profiting from data gathered through contracts with New York City and other school districts related to administering exams during school hours.

The College Board did not admit to any wrongdoing and ceased some of the contested practices in 2022. In a statement, the organization expressed satisfaction with the settlement while contesting James’ interpretation of the law, emphasizing that no evidence of misuse of student data was found. They also noted that their 52-year-old search service has had a significant positive impact on college admissions, with users receiving 29% more offers and minority students seeing a 65% increase in offers.