A student loan company has been spying on students’ social media
What happened?
In 2018, it was found that the Student Loan Company (SLC) was monitoring vulnerable student’s social media accounts for fraud prevention purposes. The company justified this by stating that increased levels of fraudulent activity led them to randomly select 150 applicants for social media surveillance to confirm their estranged status from family members for higher loan payments (whereby students claim they have no contact whatsoever with certain family members).
Estranged students, who often lack support from family members compared to other young people, face unique challenges, notably surrounding funding student accommodation and financial security during holiday breaks or reading weeks.
Despite 81 students having funding suspended and evaluated, many vulnerable people understandably felt emotionally distressed and concerned for their privacy following the surveillance undertaken by the SLC.
What are the SLC doing now?
Since this was heavily criticised in 2018, the company has now seemingly updated their privacy policies and fraud prevention methods to align with strengthened UK GDPR laws, which now have stricter controls over social media monitoring, making practices like these harder to justify without clear consent and need.
Whilst SLC doesn’t currently admit to openly utilising social media monitoring in their fraud prevention investigations, it’s an important and significant point that brings about many challenges surrounding student privacy, particularly when dealing with those who are more vulnerable, such as estranged young people.
How are estranged students being supported?
To further support estranged students in the future, particularly as an underrepresented group in higher education, some universities have promoted policies and campaigned alongside charities for better housing and year-round accommodation, although such measures are still in progress in many institutions?.
Advocacy groups, such as ‘Stand Alone’, continue to push for this fair treatment of estranged vulnerable students when applying for student loans, promoting support surrounding student’s mental health and financial stability, particularly following claims of incidents like this occurring.
