Bloomington, IL (June 29, 2015) – To further ensure the protection of student data, Gaggle has successfully completed a Service Organization Control 2 (SOC 2) Type 1 report after undergoing a thorough audit conducted by NDB, an independent auditing and accounting firm. The security audit included a rigorous evaluation of all of Gaggle's relevant processes, procedures and controls for data security, availability and privacy.

The report is intended to meet the needs of a broad range of users that desire to understand the internal controls at Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) or cloud-based service organizations.

"An increasing number of schools and districts use cloud-based services for hosting their data,” said Aaron Hughes, Chief Technology Officer at Gaggle. "By completing a SOC 2 audit, we're showing our customers, and the industry as a whole, that we’re serious about student data security and privacy."

Last October, Gaggle was one of the first K-12 school service providers to pledge to safeguard data privacy regarding the collection, maintenance and use of student personal information. Created by the Future of Privacy Forum (FPF) and the Software & Information Industry Association (SIIA), the Student Safety Pledge has been endorsed by President Barack Obama and has more than 150 signatories to date.

While important, the pledge is just one step to ensure that vendors are transparent regarding how they use and protect student data. Gaggle has also published a Student Data Privacy Notice to further confirm its commitment to being proactive in addressing all concerns or questions about its stance on student data privacy.

"The pledge is a step in the right direction, but our customers deserve a higher level of accountability; something that can only be achieved by an independent audit,” Hughes said. “We believe that it's important to do everything we can to build on the trust that schools and districts have placed in us since 1999.”