— #ESPTwiminar17–Who Was That Masked Man?

The Lone Ranger

“Who was that masked man?”  That question was asked over 3,000 times at the end of episodes of a familiar radio, TV, and movie series.  The rancher whose property had just been saved from outlaws would turn to his neighbor and say, “Oh, he’s the Lone Ranger.”  If John Reid (the Lone Ranger) were a public school student and FERPA had been in force, the rancher would have added, “…and his real name and face are masked because they are personally identifiable information.”  Simply put, the Lone Ranger’s mask hid his identity back in the 1930’s similar to how education agencies use identification numbers and de-identification techniques following FERPA mandates beginning in the 1970’s.  However, that masking and de-identification has been taken to the extreme by some agencies.  Researchers are handed databases that are disabled beyond usefulness.  This Twiminar offers a solution. Agencies need to have four separate sets of data to satisfy all their purposes.  Follow this Twiminar, learn about the four sets, get a badge.