Class Action Accuses PowerSchool of ‘Extreme Invasion’ of Student Privacy Via Naviance Platform

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A proposed class action alleges education-tech company PowerSchool Holdings and several others have caused millions of students nationwide to hand over their data without their knowledge or consent through the Naviance online platform, which is allegedly rife with third-party codes used to intercept, track and disclose student data. 

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The 70-page complaint alleges PowerSchool, data analytics firm Heap and software provider Hobsons have “surreptitiously intercepted, monitored, captured and recorded” the actions, interactions and communications of students using the Naviance platform “without probable cause or reasonable suspicion,” in violation of the United States Constitution.

Further, the suit alleges the Chicago Board of Education, on a local level, has “let the students down” and breached its privacy responsibilities by capturing and disseminating their data, including sensitive school records, without consent. 

“While Defendants PowerSchool Holdings and Hobsons have long claimed in various different ways that they value students’ privacy, that is not, and has not been, the case.” 

According to the case, more than 80 percent of all K-12 students in the United States and Canada use PowerSchool products such as Naviance. Per the suit, PowerSchool serves more than 90 of the top 100 school districts by enrollment nationwide, with the Naviance platform touted as the leading program to equip students of all ages with necessary career and life readiness skills. 

The lawsuit shares that the data collected by the defendants includes a student’s full name, photograph, school ID number, graduation year, birthdate, email and home addresses, phone number, grade point average, ethnicity, gender, standardized test scores, citizenship status, parent details and more. Additionally, PowerSchool and Hobsons collect data on students’ potential career interests, strengths and college exploration activities, the case says.

Importantly, defendant Heap’s software facilitates the interception, monitoring, capture and recording of the entirety of a web user’s actions, data transmissions and communications on a website, the filing states. Once Heap’s session-replay code is embedded into a website, the company’s software can surreptitiously monitor an individual’s online behaviors—“every click, swipe, tap, pageview and fill”—in real time and, crucially, transmit this data to third parties, the suit says. 

The lawsuit alleges PowerSchool has knowingly and intentionally embedded Heap’s tracking code into the Naviance platform—in particular the portion of the program accessed by students—for the purpose of monitoring student communications, actions and data transmissions. Per the suit, Heap’s software is decidedly not a necessity in order for PowerSchool to provide the Naviance platform to school districts nationwide. 

Further still, defendant Hobsons has embedded and integrated the code of other third parties into Naviance, causing students’ sensitive information to be intercepted, disclosed or transferred without their knowledge or consent, the case alleges.

The suit looks to cover all natural persons in the U.S. who have used the Naviance platform while a student and whose actions, interactions, data transmissions and communications were intercepted, monitored, captured, recorded and/or divulged while accessing and navigating the platform.

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