Is TalkingPoints FERPA, HIPAA, COPPA compliant 2023?

Does TalkingPoints meet all education privacy requirements for FERPA, HIPAA, COPPA compliance in 2023? No, and the onus is entirely on school administration to utilize the service only under certain circumstances, for example, by getting permission from legal guardianship, and by never disclosing any health related information. All schools must comply with privacy requirements for student personally identifiable information.

What is TalkingPoints? TalkingPoints is a cloud platform with enhanced translation, contextualized for education, using human translators and AI to translate messages into over 100 languages. Teachers can use a web browser or mobile app. With the parent mobile app, there is a text -to-speech feature that allows them to listen to the messages in their home languages. There’s no voice translation feature to use TalkingPoints to make phone calls. Here is an explanation for education compliance challenges:

• Requires legal guardian permission, which could change over time, especially with migrants, for students under the age of 13.
• “The School is solely responsible for, and represents and warrants it is in, compliance with COPPA and FERPA”.
• “The School will not disclose any information to TalkingPoints that is protected health information (“PHI”) subject to the Health Information Portability and Accountability Act (“HIPAA”).
• “Our product is not applicable for COPPA as our product does not require participation from children under 13. We are also exempt from CCPA as a nonprofit.“

TalkingPoints details under what circumstances their services are compliant for Education, however, the burden for compliance is on the educator to utilize correctly, not the service provider. Their intent is to comply, for example by not selling student information, but the responsibility for compliance is on the end users. Is it realistic for school administrators to expect 100% correct utilization of the service? During the Covid pandemic there were compliance exceptions for Emergency Use Authorization which ended effective May 9, 2023.

Resources:

• https://www2.ed.gov/policy/gen/guid/fpco/ferpa/index.html
• https://intercom.help/talkingpoints/en/articles/5423034-coppa-and-agreeing-to-message-students-13-only
• https://intercom.help/talkingpoints/en/articles/5720590-allowing-teachers-staff-to-add-student-contacts-to-existing-students-on-talkingpoints-student-messaging
• https://studentprivacy.ed.gov/training/ferpas-complaint-process-explained
• https://www.ftc.gov/legal-library/browse/rules/childrens-online-privacy-protection-rule-coppa

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