Data Security and Sharing FERPA—Protected Information Skip to main content
Integrity and Compliance

Data Security and Sharing FERPA—Protected Information

The Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) protects the privacy of student education records. Each university employee is responsible to help protect this privacy, especially in a world of technological advancements.

Emails to any address outside the BYU domain should be treated like a postcard and only include directory or data not protected by FERPA.

FERPA-protected information can be shared electronically in three ways:

  1. from an official BYU-provided email address to an official BYU-provided email address,
  2. through YMessage, or
  3. through a secured Box link or other encrypted means.

Information protected by FERPA may never be sent from a personal email account. Nor may it be sent to a personal email account, even that of a student, without a FERPA-compliant written consent from the student.

For more information, please visit https://ferpa.byu.edu.

By Topher Hill on July 26, 2022