In March 2011, UBC discovered unexpectedly that Turnitin was storing the personal information of our students in the United States. Information being stored consisted of first name, last name, email address and student number. This is in contravention of the Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act (FIPPA), which requires that such data be stored and accessed only in Canada.
We have been working with the Office of the Information and Privacy Commissioner (OIPC) to find a solution that fully respects the privacy of our students. We have taken the following actions:
First, we have disabled the connection between WebCT Vista and Turnitin. Although this is much more convenient for both students and faculty than using the Turnitin website, we needed to do this to ensure that no personal information was accessible by Turnitin without the explicit consent of the students.
Second, the OIPC is requiring that Turnitin replace identifying information of our students with non-identifying information; this action is scheduled for midnight on Sunday October 9th, 2011. Students who had an account on Turnitin.com prior to September 5th 2011, and who have used that account since then, will be impacted. Communication has been sent to all students and instructors we believe affected.
UBC will continue to take whatever steps are necessary to protect the privacy of its students and faculty.
Questions may be directed to Turnitin Support.
