Department of Education Sued Following Markup Investigation Into FAFSA Data Shared with Facebook

Almost immediately following The Markup’s investigation, the nonprofit organizations National Student Legal Defense Network (Student Defense), which provides legal defense for higher education students, and Accountable Tech, which advocates against online surveillance practices, asked lawmakers to investigate the trackers on the FAFSA website, and requested documents from the Department of Education under the Freedom of Information Act. The groups asked the Department of Education to provide any communications between government officials and Facebook. Their request also asked for any reports or other documents about data being sent to the company through the Meta Pixel.