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Protecting Student Privacy

  • 2 Min Read

Student data should not be bought, sold, or used for advertising. Student data is priceless, and its purpose is for education.

John Baker
John Baker

CEO and Board Chair

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Earlier this summer, I wrote a piece on this blog about the importance of protecting student data. The underlying message of that post is that student data is not a product. It’s not something to be looked at as a commodity to be bought, sold, or used for advertising. Student data is priceless and its purpose is for education.

At D2L, we fundamentally believe student data is for learning. We place our value on the education of students and the learning they are able to access through our platform. That’s why when several United States Senators asked us to share with them our practices and values, we were more than happy to contribute our best practices as an example of good stewardship.

I want to share our response to their letter with you all here so that this message is heard even outside of policy circles. Please view our response to U.S. Senate Letter.

Transparency is a critical component of ensuring trust in practice, and we should expect all of our service providers to openly and willingly share their privacy practices with us. To better facilitate our pro-active sharing, we launched in July our new Privacy Center where our customers, students, and parents can read about our privacy practices in easy to understand language.

Since I founded this company in 1999, our mission has been to transform the way the world learns. For the last twenty years, we have done that by keeping our focus on learning and protecting data. We’ll keep doing that.

Written by:

John Baker
John Baker

CEO and Board Chair

John founded D2L in 1999, at the age of twenty-two, while attending the University of Waterloo. D2L is a global software company that believes learning is the foundation upon which all progress and achievement rests.

A strong believer in community involvement, John devotes both his personal and business efforts to supporting young entrepreneurs who are developing and applying technology to improve society worldwide.

He was appointed to the Governing Council of the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, Member (Entrepreneurs’ Circle) of the Business Council of Canada, Business Higher Education Roundtable, Past Chair of the Board of Communitech, and is a board member of Canada’s National Ballet School.

John was awarded the Meritorious Service Cross, the EY Entrepreneur of the Year (Ontario for Software and Technology), Young Alumni Achievement Medal from University of Waterloo, and Intrepid Entrepreneur of the Year in Waterloo Region Hall of Fame.

John graduated from the University of Waterloo with an Honours B.A.Sc. in Systems Design Engineering, with First Class Honours and an option in Management Sciences.

Twitter: @JohnBakerD2L
LinkedIn: John Baker
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