Practice · Privacy Engineering

Q1

Which statement best explains the difference between security and privacy?

A Privacy is only about passwords. B They are the same thing. C Security protects data against unauthorized access; privacy protects people against inappropriate collection and use of their data — even by the legitimate organization. D Security is a legal topic; privacy is a technical topic.

Q2

Which item is personal data?

A A post signed "the only exchange student from Brazil in CPS 4301 W03" B The number of posts in CPS 4301 this week C The average response time of Buddy D The name of the course

Q3

A student tells Buddy: "I missed the midterm because I was in hospital for depression." What kind of data is now in the chat log?

A Non-personal data B Only metadata C Sensitive personal data (health information), which needs extra protection D Public data

Q4

According to contextual integrity, which flow is most likely inappropriate?

A A question posted on the course board is seen by classmates and the TA. B The instructor receives a list of named students who asked "the most basic questions" to Buddy. C Aggregated, anonymous statistics of common questions are shown to the instructor. D A student sees their own chat history.

Q5

StudyBuddy collects free-time slots for study matching. A department manager asks to use them to check whether students attend evening review sessions. Which principle is at stake?

A Availability B Portability C Accuracy D Purpose limitation

Q6

The sign-up form asks for birthday, home address and phone number, although no feature uses them. Which principle is violated?

A Integrity B Data minimization C Open design D Accountability

Q7

Buddy chat logs are kept "forever, in case they are useful". Which principle does this violate?

A Transparency B Portability C Least privilege D Storage limitation

Q8

Under China's PIPL, which situation requires the individual's separate consent (in addition to general consent), when consent is the legal basis?

A Encrypting the database B Showing a student their own profile C Transferring a student's personal information to an AI provider outside mainland China D Counting the number of registered users

Q9

When can the EU's GDPR apply to StudyBuddy, whose servers are in China?

A Only if the company is registered in the EU. B When the service is offered to, or monitors the behaviour of, people who are in the EU (e.g., an exchange student using it from Germany). C Only for students born in the EU. D Never; the servers are not in the EU.

Q10

Which US law protects the education records of students at institutions that receive federal education funding, such as Kean University?

A FERPA B PIPL C GDPR D HIPAA

Q11

Under PIPL and GDPR, what right do people have regarding decisions made solely by automated processing that significantly affect them (e.g., an algorithm that bars "at-risk" students from an honours track)?

A The right to see the source code B No rights at all C Only the right to a refund D Rights to transparency/explanation and to refuse or contest such decisions (and obtain human involvement)

Q12

Which is an example of privacy by default?

A Data is encrypted only for paying users. B Profiles are visible to everyone until the student changes a hidden setting. C The privacy notice is 40 pages long. D Optional data (photo, bio) is empty and profile visibility is limited to classmates unless the student chooses to share more.

Q13

The analytics export replaces student names with codes, but the team keeps a table mapping codes to names. The export is…

A pseudonymized — still personal data, but with reduced risk B public data C encrypted D anonymized, so privacy law no longer applies

Q14

Sweeney's research found that about 87% of the US population could be uniquely identified by which combination?

A Name and email B Favourite movie and shoe size C Blood type only D ZIP code, gender and date of birth

Q15

A released table of study statistics is 3-anonymous with respect to (age range, gender, major). What does this guarantee?

A The table has 3 columns. B Every combination of those quasi-identifier values appears in at least 3 records. C No sensitive data can ever be inferred. D Only 3 students are in the table.

Q16

To reach k-anonymity, the team replaces exact ages (19, 20, 21) with the range 18–22. This technique is called…

A encryption B replication C generalization D tokenization of passwords

Q17

The instructor dashboard shows "average quiz score of female students from Brazil in W03: 54%" — there is one such student. What rule would prevent this disclosure?

A Showing it in a different colour B Encrypting the database C A minimum group size (e.g., do not show statistics for groups smaller than 5) D Rounding the average to whole numbers

Q18

What is the idea of differential privacy?

A Encrypting each record with a different key B Adding calibrated random noise to statistics so that results are nearly the same whether or not any one person's data is included C Deleting the database every day D Using different passwords for each user

Q19

A student asks StudyBuddy to delete their account. Which is the most complete implementation of this request?

A Set active = false on the account row. B Change the password. C Delete or anonymize the account data, their chats and personal data in search indexes, logs and caches according to the retention policy, let backups expire on schedule, and inform recipients (e.g., the AI provider) where required. D Hide the profile photo.

Q20

When should StudyBuddy carry out a privacy impact assessment (DPIA / PIPIA)?

A Before high-risk processing such as sensitive data, automated decisions, new technologies like AI, or cross-border transfers — i.e., before launching Buddy with an external provider. B Once every ten years. C After a data breach only. D Never; only large companies do them.

Q21

Which data-subject right lets a student obtain their StudyBuddy data in a structured, machine-readable format to reuse it elsewhere?

A The right to object B The right to rectification C The right to be forgotten D The right to data portability

Q22

Under Privacy by Design, the principle "full functionality — positive-sum, not zero-sum" means…

A Designs should achieve both privacy and useful functionality instead of treating them as a trade-off where one must lose. B All features must be free. C Privacy must always win over features. D Every user gets all data.

Q23

Which is the best just-in-time notice for Buddy's question box?

A "By using this app you agree to everything." B "Your question is sent to an external AI service to generate an answer. Don't include personal information such as your ID, phone number or health details. Learn more." C "Buddy is 100% private." D No notice; it is in the 40-page policy.

Q24

Before sending a student's question to the AI provider, StudyBuddy automatically replaces emails, phone numbers and ID numbers with placeholders such as [EMAIL]. This is an example of…

A Data minimization / redaction at a trust boundary B Differential privacy C Contract testing D Load balancing

Q25

Which contract term is most important when StudyBuddy uses an external AI provider for Buddy?

A The provider's logo colour B A data-processing agreement: the provider processes data only to answer requests, does not use it for training, deletes it after a short period, protects it, and states where it is processed C The number of employees of the provider D A free trial period

Q26

The team considers fine-tuning a model on all past Buddy chats "to make it smarter". What is the main privacy concern?

A Chats contain personal and sometimes sensitive data; a trained model may memorize and reproduce it, and this reuse goes beyond the purpose students were told about. B There is no concern if the model is accurate. C Models cannot learn from chats. D Fine-tuning is slow.

Q27 Short answer

Create a data inventory for four StudyBuddy data items of your choice: for each give the purpose, who may access it, where it is stored/sent, and the retention period — and point out one minimization improvement.

Q28 Short answer

Explain why pseudonymization is not anonymization, and describe how a "de-identified" StudyBuddy dataset (no names, but age, gender, major, dorm building and course section) could be re-identified. Propose two measures.

Q29 Short answer

StudyBuddy (hosted in mainland China) plans to use an AI provider whose servers are in another country. List the privacy issues and three design options, with one advantage and one drawback each.

Q30 Short answer

Write the short layer (5–8 lines) of StudyBuddy's privacy notice for students, following transparency principles.