Disclaimers

I didn't want to hit you with this stuff right off the bat. But now that you have had a taste of Insights and SQL it is necesssary.

Disclaimer 1: Responsibility

If you are a financial aid professional you hopefully do not need this disclaimer so I will keep it short.

Handling the data that comes out of a school's database must be done with the ultimate of care. You will potentially have access to some very private information. An accidental leak of data would not be fun.

Depending on your Insights configuration you may have access to the data through virtually any web browser. I strongly reccommend you consider if you should. No matter what, please keep the following points in mind.

• You should not access the database from your personal computer. If you lose or sell your laptop you should not have to worry if there are any sensitive files left on the hard drive.
• Never store data on a thumb drive unless it is a backup locked up on campus.
• Never use any public wi-fi to access data.
• Never use your computer in a country with data security problems. Many schools have a country blacklist. If you try to access the school network from China, Albania, or many other countries your connection will fail.
• Do not connect to the school network through your VPN is the signal is being routed through another country. For example, if you connect your VPN to Albania you can watch Youtube videos without any ads. But if watch your videos while working at home your network data is also passing through Albania. Your I.T. department may drop you an email asking why you are in Albania.

All I ask is that you begin to think about what pipes the school's data is moving through and consider if they are secure.

Also think about the Albanian Youtube thing. It really works. It's a law there or something, no ads.

Single Source of Truth

Different data coming from the same database is a problem. Consider the question "How many students are getting aid?" This question is so vague it is practically worthless.