DOD Announces Massive Student Database

Privacy advocates from both inside and outside higher education have made protestations against the government in the wake of the Pentagon’s May unveiling of a three-year-old database containing personal information on students nationwide.

The database—amassed from the Selective Service and Motor Vehicle Associations, as well as private vendors—was designed in order to centralize information to be used for military recruiting, which has intensified recently. Personal files may include an individual’s Social Security number, ethnicity, grade point average, and e-mail address. So far, the database has processed information for a total of 30 million people, of which 12 million are presently considered viable recruitment targets.

Opponents of the database, which was kept secret until May and is managed by a private firm, say it offers the government unprecedented—and invasive—access to personal information.

Since the database contains information about all Selective Service registrants—as well as drivers’ license holders—it already has files on most Harvard students. But, administrators say, none of the information has been supplied by the University itself.

“Harvard has not, to my knowledge, received a request by the government for information about its students,” said Senior Director of Federal and State Relations Kevin Casey. “We would honor a decision by a student to have their information withheld.”

Harvard has resisted providing the military with information on its students in the past. The Law School is currently involved in a suit that will be tried before the Supreme Court, protesting the Solomon Amendment, a law that requires schools to give military recruiters access to their students in exchange for federal funding.

“There are clear laws governing the protection of student records,” Casey said. “And we abide by those laws.”

“In my view it should be entirely up to the student,” said Byrne Professor of Administrative Law Todd D. Rakoff ’67. “It’s what the student chooses to release.”

Although the University heard about the database for the first time this spring, it has been an established source of information for some time.

“This is not a new database,” said Department of Defense spokesperson Lieutenant Colonel Ellen Krenke. “We’ve been doing this for many years.”

The Privacy Act of 1974 places restrictions on the amount of information the government may hold on individuals, but private companies—like BeNOW, Inc., which has been managing the database—are not subject to the same restrictions.

Pentagon officials have said that the decision to hire BeNOW was cost-effective and may help avoid sending duplicate mailings.

“There’s nothing sinister in giving it to the subcontractor,” Deputy Undersecretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness David S. C. Chu told members of the press last week. “They’re the mechanic. They have no policy role.”

Commercial vendors obtain additional information on students through voluntary questionnaires, Chu said.

Nine privacy-advocacy groups, including the Electronic Privacy Information Center, filed official protests during an official comment period after the Pentagon’s announcement. The database was publicly unveiled in the Federal Register—a daily publication in which federal agencies are required to announce rules and proposed regulations.

“This database represents an unprecedented foray of the government into direct marketing techniques previously only performed by the private sector,” the groups wrote in their comments. “These techniques simply are not compatible with the Privacy Act.”

The Pentagon may also use or disseminate the data for purposes other than military recruiting. But Chu said last week that the Pentagon had no intention of doing so.

Should students wish to avoid being targeted for military recruiting, they may opt out of the system individually by filing a written request. This will not remove their records from the database, however.

This information is independent of other information-tracking initiatives, like those required by the No Child Left Behind Act, which requires public high schools to provide local draft boards with information on their students in exchange for federal funds.

—Staff writer Natalie I. Sherman can be reached at nsherman@fas.harvard.edu.