Privacy Concerns Force Inbloom, A Data Repository For Schools, To Shut Down

InBloom, a repository for student data that launched with $100 million in funding from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the Carnegie Corporation of New York, is bowing to relentless opposition from parent activists and waving the white flag of surrender, just over a year since its splashy SXSWedu debut. CEO Iwan Streichenberger announced the decision to shut down the organization in a letter posted to the inBloom website. "It is a shame that the progress of this important innovation has been stalled because of generalized public concerns about data misuse, even though inBloom has world-class security and privacy protections that have raised the bar for school districts and the industry as a whole," he wrote.