ClassLink DataGuard now includes TrueView, which lets teachers see student names in apps where vendors only get masked data.
How many companies hold the names of your students right now?
Count the apps that receive your class rosters. Most of them store student names, email addresses, and ID numbers on servers your school system doesn't control. That data can stay there long after you stop sending it.
Every copy of a student's personally identifiable information (PII) is one more place it can be stolen. In a national CoSN survey of school technology leaders, 63% were extremely or very concerned about understanding the privacy and security practices of their edtech vendors.
Privacy agreements set the rules for how vendors handle that data. The next step is giving them less to hold.
DataGuard Gives Vendors Less
ClassLink DataGuard works inside ClassLink Roster Server, which sends your rosters to the apps you approve. For each app, you decide whether a field gets sent, held back, or masked.
Masking handles the fields an app can't do without, like student names. DataGuard fills them with random characters before your rosters leave, so the app still gets a value and the vendor never stores the true name. If that vendor is ever attacked, those fields hold no student names.
The trouble is that teachers see those random characters too. The first time an instructor opens a class list with no names on it, you hear about it. Schools end up choosing between protecting student data and letting teachers see true names.
Now You Don’t Have to Choose
With TrueView, vendors keep getting masked data, and your teachers and admins get the true names.
TrueView is a browser extension for Chrome and Edge, tied to each person's ClassLink sign-in, and it's now part of DataGuard.
In any app where you've turned on TrueView, a teacher or admin opens the extension and clicks Show True Values. The random characters on their screen turn into true names.
TrueView Makes Masking Practical
Before TrueView, masking only made sense in apps where no one needed to read student names.
Now it makes sense in many of the web apps teachers use every day. Every app you mask means one fewer vendor receiving real student names.
No Network Engineering Required
Rolling out TrueView doesn't touch your network. There's no hardware to install and no traffic inspection to maintain.
Deploy the extension to staff devices, or let staff add it from the Chrome Web Store. After installing the TrueView extension, staff sign in to ClassLink once more, and TrueView sets itself up.
Then, in DataGuard, turn on masking for an app and make it viewable with TrueView.
Questions Technology Teams Ask
- Will my apps still work?
DataGuard is designed to follow the OneRoster standard, so masked values arrive in the same fields your vendors read today. Many vendors already accept rosters protected by DataGuard. - Who can see the true names?
Your teachers and admins can see true names when signed in to ClassLink, on app pages they’re authorized to access. Vendors get only masked values, and no formula connects them to a name. You decide who gets TrueView. - What do teachers have to do?
Teachers open TrueView and click Show True Values. After that, true names keep showing in that app for the rest of the session. By default, TrueView waits for that first click, so it doesn’t slow down older devices. Teachers can also choose to have TrueView remember apps they use regularly. - Where does TrueView work?
TrueView works in Chrome or Edge on desktops and laptops, including Macs. It doesn’t work in apps that run outside the browser.
Start With One App
Already using DataGuard? Try TrueView with an app your instructors rely on. It's included in your existing DataGuard subscription.
If you're new to DataGuard, start with a demo. TrueView is included with DataGuard, a $0.25 per user per year upgrade to ClassLink Roster Server.