Ge#ng

to grips with the Na1onal Pupil Database; personal data in an Open Data world

Phil Booth and Terri Dowty | Open Data Ins1tute Friday Lunch1me Lectures |15 Feb 2013

personal data open data

NPD: legisla4ve underpinning

Educa4on Act 96 power to collect school level data Amended by Schedule 30 School Standards and Framework Act 1998 Created statutory gateway to collect personal data about pupils Empowered secretary of state to dene data in regula4ons

NPD: 2
No consent required - head teachers under duty to supply informa4on Data taken directly from school MIS Ini4ally parents/children unaware - FPNs

Func4on Creep
Original school census annual ('PLASC') Now taken each term Includes pre-school providers Incremental increase in personal data Exclusions and aUendance data, poverty markers, mode of travel to school... The gi= that keeps on giving?

NPD data tables

NPD request and data ows

DfE Data Management Advisory Panel (DMAP)
TIER 1
Individual pupil level: iden1fying and/or iden1able and highly sensi1ve

TIER 2

Individual pupil level: iden1able and sensi1ve, e.g. recoded ethnicity, SEN, FSM

REQUEST

DATA

DfE Data and Sta1s1cs Division (DSD)

TIER 3

Aggregate school level: iden1able and sensi1ve, could have single counts

TIER 4

Individual pupil level: iden1able, e.g. gender, aUainment, absences

Diagram based on NPD user guide and protocol, July 2012

DfE consulta4on: widen access to NPD

educators

prot-driven enterprises

educa4on publishers and developers

direct marketers researchers bullies

the voluntary sector

Data would only be released to organisa1ons which had been through a robust approval process and in accordance with strict terms and condi1ons on data security, handling and use.

poli4cal par4es and candidates

professional bodies

We will achieve this through making informa1on from the Na1onal Pupil Database available to all (with appropriate safeguards in place so individual pupils cannot be iden1ed), and developing a new School Performance Data Portal.

people with grudges

the media

consultants

re-iden4ca4on
rela4vely easy outside urban areas when combined with ward-level stats e.g. ethnicity + sector postcode narrow down to handful of families (at most) + school year group can id individual child

anonymisa4on
de-iden4ca4on pseudonymisa4on eec4vely anonymised? aggregate data / sta4s4cs

Dieren4al Privacy

iden4fying people

re-iden4fying people
NAFIS IDENT1

NDNAD

GCSE + A LEVEL

personal data open data obfusca4on vs. consent (no4ca4on knowledge) anonymisa4on vs. u4lity

thanks for listening

Phil Booth phil@truth2power.org.uk Terri Dowty terri@truth2power.org.uk