The EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) is a new EU-wide regulation that will come into force on May 25th 2018. It is being enforced to set a new standard for how companies use and protect EU citizens’ data. At VSware we have been working hard to ensure that we are fully compliant and maintain our transparency on how we use our customer’s data. Here is a overview of what GDPR means for schools and their data, and what we are doing at VSware to prepare for this change.
What is GDPR?
The EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) will replace existing data protection law to strengthen the protection of “personal data” and the rights of the individual throught the EU. It emphasises transparency, security and accountability by data controllers and processors (that’s us), while at the same time strengthening the right of European citizens to data privacy.
How does it affect Irish Secondary Schools?
The following will apply to schools and their data as of May 25th 2018
- Personal data must be processed fairly and lawfully
- Personal data must be accurate and kept up to date
- Personal data should be kept secure in terms of encryption and physical access
- Data should not be kept for any longer than necessary
- Individual rights – right of access to information, right to rectification
- Information must only be shared with those that need to see it
How is VSware preparing for GDPR?
Internal Review VSware started preparation for GDPR by preparing a comprehensive overview of all systems and data as well as formulating a plan to improve all processes related to this data. This also includes a commitment to better communicate all changes with the customer
Access Management Improved user management options mean that schools have more power to decide which users see certain information
Incident Management We have created a new data breach reporting tool on our website to allow reporting for breaches outside of office hours. It can be accessed here
Subject Access Request Under the new GDPR guidelines, individuals have the right to request access to the information the school holds on them or their child. If a parent, student or employee of a school requests access to the information the school holds on them, that request goes to the school first and will then be passed on to VSware for processing
Ease of Access
VSware makes it easy to retrieve student/parent/staff information as all data is stored in one place
Further Info & Help
All off our policy documents are currently under review to ensure full GDPR compliance. Visit vsware.ie/policies/ for more information. Download a summary of GDPR & VSware here. Product updates relating to GDPR can be viewed at: vsware.ie/roadmap/.
We’re building new features
Our teams are working on new featuers that will improve the security and privacy of data stored within VSware accounts. You can follow the progress of these updates on our roadmap page.
- Teacher Permissions & Student Information
Previously the user permission ‘Allow access to Detailed Student Information’ allowed users access to the Personal and Household tab of a student profile as well as the ability to print student data. Administrators can now separate these permissions, so that it is possible to give a teacher access to either the Personal or Household tab or give access to Print Student Data.
- Privacy statement
Schools will have the ability to add a link to their own privacy statement to the login screen
- Allow teachers to only see the details of students they teach
By default, teachers will only be able to access their own student’s information, and not the information of students they don’t teach
- Edit your dashboard
Users will be able to toggle on/off existing widgets on the dashboard (such as Behaviour, Overdue roll calls etc.) This will allow the user to have greater control of what they see when they log in
- SEN documents
Update to ensure that medical and SEN documents open in the browser in read only mode. At present, the documents download in an editable format
- 2 Factor Authentication
Schools will have the option to enable 2 Factor Authentication. When enabled, all new logins to VSware must be verified by both the login details of the user, and a unique code which will be sent to their mobile phone
- Print SMS & E-mail field
Two new fields will be added to ‘print student data’ to enable schools to export parent’s or guardian’s mobile number or email address
Questions?
We would be happy to answer any questions you have on GDPR. Feel free to contact us through the intercom chat feature or call our support line on 01-5549628.
