Tech

Tutor.com faces Senate investigation over privacy issues

Several government officials have criticized Tutor.com over concerns about its Chinese parent company.

Photo Illustration: Justin Morrison/Inside Higher Ed | Chotika/rawpixel | Carol M. Highsmith/Library of Congress | tutor.com

Republican senators on Thursday launched an investigation into Tutor.com, a Chinese-owned company that partners with K-12 schools and several higher education institutions, citing data privacy concerns about the company.

Tutor.com is owned by Primavera Capital Group, a Chinese investment firm that also invested in TikTok's parent company, ByteDance, which is under scrutiny for its ties to the Chinese government. In April, President Biden signed legislation that will ban TikTok in the United States unless it finds a new owner by the end of the year.

The Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee will expand its scrutiny of Chinese-owned companies and will now investigate federally funded contracts with Tutor.com to assess any threats to students' online safety and privacy, Sen. Bill Cassidy said in a letter to Tutor.com's former CEO Joshua Hyun-Joon Park (current CEO is Bob Batten).

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The Louisiana Republican wrote that the arrangement raises significant concerns about the privacy of student data because Chinese law requires China-based companies to support, assist and cooperate with national intelligence efforts, meaning the companies could be forced to share information with the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) if asked.

In a statement to Inside Higher Ed, Tutor.com defended itself, saying it has extensive safeguards and enforcement mechanisms in place to ensure that U.S. student data is not shared with China or foreign entities under any circumstances.

The company said it maintains the highest standards of transparency and data security and complies with US federal and state requirements regarding student data, adding that a US government investigation in April 2023 found no national security concerns.

Just two months ago, Republican Senator Tom Cotton of Arkansas and Republican Representative Elise Stefanik of New York introduced legislation to block the Chinese Communist Party's access to U.S. military students, urging the Department of Defense to ban Tutor.com. There has been no movement on the bill since.

Tutor.com's parent company, Primavera, acquired The Princeton Review along with Tutor.com in 2022 and also owns the company, and Tutor.com advertises it as a service of The Princeton Review on its website.

Cassidy's letter did not mention the Princeton Review, which did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

While Cassidy's letter focuses on Tutor.com's contracts with libraries, K-12 schools and the U.S. military, the company also has higher education clients including Texas A&M University, the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga and Abilene Christian College. It also works with the Department of Defense and the Coast Guard Mutual Aid Program.

According to Tutor.com's website, interactions between tutors and students are logged and the logs are reviewed and kept to maintain high standards. The website further states that the company takes data privacy seriously, complies with U.S. state and federal laws, and has data security officers who have been vetted by the U.S. government.

Cassidy called the website's statements an implied warranty and demanded that Tutor.com take 11 steps by June 11, including:

A list of state and local educational institutions and libraries that have signed the agreement, and any associated contracts A list of Tutor.com's leadership team and a description of their relationships and interactions with Primavera Capital Group and Primavera Holdings Limited A description of how the company stores student data and the names and locations of parties that have access to that data A detailed description of all policies related to Tutor.com's recorded classroom environment, including who reviews the recordings and how the recordings are stored.

Sources

1/ https://Google.com/

2/ https://www.insidehighered.com/news/tech-innovation/teaching-learning/2024/05/24/tutorcom-faces-senate-scrutiny-over-privacy

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