Chinese company infiltrating classrooms across the country, putting students’ data at risk: parent activist group

A Chinese-owned financial corporation that provides tutoring services, which has been deemed problematic by Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., is infiltrating American classrooms, according to Parents Defending Education. 

Tutor.com bills itself as a personal tutor site “dedicated to promoting equity, opportunity, and achievement for all learners” that partners with “colleges and universities, K–12 schools and districts, public and state libraries, employee benefits programs, and the U.S. military to provide 24/7, on-demand tutoring and homework help in more than 250 subjects.” 

At the bottom of Tutor’s website, it says “Tutor.com is controlled by Primavera Holdings Limited, a firm owned by Chinese nationals with a principal place of business in Hong Kong, China,” although it insists it’s an American company. Primavera is also associated with TikTok’s parent company, ByteDance. 

Parents Defending Education, a grassroots organization “working to reclaim our schools from activists imposing harmful agendas,” found that at least 100 school districts across the nation give students access to Tutor.com. PDE president and founder Nicole Neily believes parents deserve more control over who is collecting data about their children, so she has put a spotlight on the Chinese-owned company. 

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“For years, school districts around the country have been far too cavalier in their treatment of student data: collecting detailed information about students and families, improperly storing sensitive personal information, and greatly expanding the number of ‘EdTech’ vendors who can access these files,” Neily told Fox News Digital. 

“Tutor.com is the latest – but without a doubt, far from the last – concerning firm with access to student information, and it’s unlikely that most American families would be comfortable with a foreign-owned company maintaining this data,” Neily continued. “Parents deserve more control over who is collecting information about their children, because districts are completely asleep at the switch.”

According to PDE research, school districts in Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Louisiana, Missouri, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, North Dakota, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Texas, Utah, Virginia, Washington, and West Virginia give students access to Tutor.com.  

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Hawaii, Louisiana, New Hampshire, South Carolina, and West Virginia have contracts with Tutor.com through either their Department of Education or State Library for all K-12 students, according to PDE. Among states without a state-wide contract, California tops with Tutor being offered to students in 24 different districts. 

Last month, Cotton urged the Department of Defense (DOD) to share information about the agency’s contract related to tutoring services for U.S. military families. Cotton sent a letter to Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin calling the business relationship with Hong Kong-based Primavera Capital Group “ill-advised, reckless,” and a danger to U.S. national security. 

“We should not be giving the Chinese communists access to the data of United States servicemembers and their families,” Cotton, a member of the Senate’s intelligence committee, previously told Fox News Digital. “I look forward to a full explanation from the Department of Defense on their continued use of Tutor.com.”

Like ByteDance and any other Chinese tech company, Primavera is subject to Chinese national security laws which require tech companies to release confidential business and customer data. Primavera acquired Tutor.com in January 2022. 

“While providing educational services, Tutor.com collects personal data on users, such as location, internet protocol addresses, and contents of the tutoring sessions,” Cotton wrote. “As Chinese national security laws require companies to release confidential business and customer data to the Chinese government, we are paying to expose our military and their children’s private information to the Chinese Communist Party.”

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Cotton also sought clarification on whether an internal review has been conducted to determine the continuation of the business relationship with Tutor.com, and if such a review has not taken place, an explanation is requested. Additionally, Cotton wants statistics on the annual usage of Tutor.com by military personnel or their dependents, and whether users are informed that their data may be shared with a Chinese company.

Cotton’s office had not heard back from the Department of Defense as of Tuesday afternoon. 

“The Department of Defense needs to explain why a Chinese-owned company has easy access to the data of military families. The same goes for any school district that is utilizing tutor.com,” Cotton told Fox News Digital. 

The Department of Defense did not immediately respond to a request for comment. 

Tutor denied that Primavera has access to personal data or its IT systems

“Tutor.com is an American company, and we abide by U.S. state and federal laws. We were incorporated in 2000 in the state of Delaware. Our principal place of business is New York City, and all student data is housed in the United States. As an American company, Tutor.com cannot be compelled to release confidential data to China or any other foreign nation,” a Tutor spokesperson told Fox News Digital. 

“Tutor.com voluntarily initiated a rigorous federal review by the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) to ensure that stringent safeguards would be put in place to protect customer and student data, together with mechanisms that provide for constant monitoring and compliance. Our data-protection practices are therefore among the most comprehensive and well-enforced of any U.S. education services provider. No personal information of students or families is shared with Primavera, and Primavera does not have—and may not obtain—access to our IT systems,” the spokesperson continued. “We take data protection seriously, and we have a number of active controls in place to safeguard information, including a binding legal commitment to the U.S. government that Primavera will not have access to any personal data or our IT systems.”

The company also said it has “a designated data security officer, vetted and approved by the U.S. government, to continuously monitor and ensure compliance with data-protection measures, as well as two independent directors on the Tutor.com board of directors, also vetted and approved by the U.S. government, whose foremost duty is to ensure that personal data is appropriately safeguarded.”

The Tutor spokesperson said the company is “in compliance with the framework in the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) Special Publication 800-171, which provides a set of cybersecurity guidelines and requirements designed to safeguard sensitive information.”