Continuing Teenspace privacy violations, despite assurances from city

January 8, 2025

Below is the letter PCSP, NYCLU and AI for Families sent yesterday  to the NYC Department of Health, in response to their latest letter dated Dec. 18, 2024.

We were happy to learn that the Department of Health and Mental Health (DOHMH) is now requiring Talkspace to rewrite their contract providing online mental health services for NYC teens, as well as their Privacy Policy and Terms of Service to be more privacy protective, in response to the concerns we expressed on September 10 and October 17, 2024.

Yet we find the DOHMH claim in their latest missive that the Talkspace/Teenspace website has now eliminated the use of invasive ad trackers, cookies and personal information disclosures to social media platforms to be wholly inaccurate.

In this follow-up letter we discuss our findings and continuing concerns.  We urge DOHMH to make more effective efforts to protect the privacy of NYC teens, including requiring Talkspace to build an entirely new website dedicated to NYC Teenspace services, free of trackers and disclosures, and that it undergo a privacy audit before making it live.

Talkspace should also be required to delete all the personal information already illegitimately collected and shared of NYC children, and make an apology and recompense to those families whose privacy was violated.  We also ask why if Talkspace has violated its original contract as DOHMH has implied, whether they will be fined or suffer any penalty.

NYCLU PCSP AIF Reply to DOHMH re persistent privacy issues w. Teenspace 1.8.2025

Council hearings and testimony on student mental health & Teenspace

Video above of CM Joseph’s incisive questioning of Marnie Davidoff, Assistant Commissioner for the Bureau of Children, Youth and Families about Teenspace lax privacy practices, followed by video of Leonie Haimson, Parent Coalition for Student Privacy, speaking on the same issue.  Leonie’s written testimony is below, followed by the testimony of Shannon Edwards, founder of AI for Families.  Chalkbeat and Crain’s Health Pulse also reported on the issue.

Council testimony about teenspace 11.25.24 Mental Health Testimony_S.Edwards 11.24.24

Chancellor to create a Work Group to improve the terrible privacy regs

Nov. 22, 2024

After our letter and more than 3,000 parent emails were sent to the new DOE Chancellor and members of the Panel for Educational Policy, she was alerted to the fact that their privacy regulations were not acceptable to parents and other members of the community.  Chancellor Ramos reached out, and last week we had a good meeting with her,  along with parent leaders and advocates, as well as many top DOE officials and legal staff on this issue.

The Chancellor was great and quickly agreed to our suggestion to create a working group that would collaborate to revise the regulations to so that students’ safety and privacy are not put at unacceptable risk by allowing the unrestricted release of their sensitive data.  At this point, the PEP vote on the regs is indefinitely postponed. Yesterday’s Politico Playbook briefly reported on this development.

Thanks so much for the letters of support sent in recent days from  UFT President Michael Mulgrew, Council Members Krishnan, Joseph, and Aviles, and the Center on Race and Digital Justice, urging the DOE to revise the regulations and restrict the disclosure of personal data to better ensure student privacy and safety, including to prevent the harassment and deportation of migrant children.  Those letters are below.

Council letter vs draft Chancellors regulations A-820 Mulgrew letter to Chancellor opposed to weakening of CR A-820 concerning student privacy Center on Race and Digital Justice letter to Chancellor

Safeguarding your child’s personal data: Threat to student privacy from DOE’s use of digital learning, Teenspace, College Board, AI & more


Oct. 24, 2024

Last night we held a privacy briefing, pointing out the flaws in the privacy practices and policies of the NYC Dept. of Education.  Co-sponsored by AQE, and with the participation of Beth Haroules of NYCLU, it was well-attended, with lots of good questions .   We hope to have video soon.

For those who could not attend, you can  watch the video above and/or check out the slightly updated presentation here and below. If your parent or community group would like a similar briefing, please let us know by emailing us at [email protected] 
Privacy briefing 10.23.24 final

Urge the NYC Chancellor to strengthen their proposed student privacy regulations now!

Please send a letter today to the NYC Schools Chancellor, the Dept of Education Chief Privacy Officer and the members of the Panel for Educational Policy,  the NYC school board, opposing proposed revisions to the regulations pertaining to student privacy.

These proposed revisions would essentially allow the NYC Dept. of Education to share the names, email addresses, phone numbers, home addresses, and birth dates of students with anyone they like, and with no restrictions except an unreliable parent opt out method. They would also weaken privacy protections for student health records as well as the security provisions in state law to defend against hacking and breaches.

The letter urges the DOE to postpone the vote on these regulations, now scheduled for Oct. 30, until they are fundamentally revised, and until DOE officials have met with parents and advocates to hear more about our concerns. A letter sent on behalf of Class Size Matters and the Parent Coalition for Student Privacy with more detail about these and other significant weaknesses in the proposed regulations is posted here and below.  Thanks!

Serious concern with proposed Chancellors regulation A-820 10.21.24