Privacy Regulation of Computer-Assisted Testing and Instruction

Using computers to assist in testing and instruction creates privacy concerns that were absent or less consequential prior to the computer age. Not only does computer-assisted testing and instruction (CATI) threaten to invade privacy insidiously, its use with young schoolchildren poses the additional threat of arresting development of their privacy expectations. In light of the significance of "reasonable expectations of privacy" in constitutional and tort law, as well as privacy's role in resisting totalitarianism, widespread and routine use of CATI may profoundly alter the balance between public and private realms.