Latest Update: As of July 10, 2026, there have been no new public developments in Zeolla v. Southern New Hampshire University (Case No. 1:25-cv-00541) since the complaint was filed in December 2025. The case remains in its early stages — no motion to dismiss, class certification ruling, or settlement has been reported, and SNHU has not issued any statement beyond its initial acknowledgment that it is reviewing the allegations. Students who use mySNHU should continue monitoring the docket for the next major milestone: a ruling on class certification.
Last updated: July 2026
Southern New Hampshire University is facing a federal class action lawsuit alleging it secretly shared students’ most sensitive personal data, including GPAs, ethnicities, and financial aid records, with Google and TikTok. If you ever used the mySNHU student portal, your information may have been swept up in this.
The complaint was filed on December 20, 2025, in the United States District Court for the District of New Hampshire. It names two student plaintiffs and asks the court to certify the case as a class action covering every student who used mySNHU.
The SNHU data sharing lawsuit is one of the most detailed student privacy cases filed at any American university in recent years. The scope of data allegedly exposed goes far beyond anything seen in earlier university tracking cases.
This article breaks down exactly what happened, who is affected, what the law says, and what you can do today.
What Is the SNHU Data Sharing Lawsuit?
The SNHU data sharing lawsuit claims the university installed third-party tracking software on its student portal and allowed Google and TikTok to collect deeply personal student information without consent.
Two students, Tina Zeolla from Massachusetts and Kirsten Kellogg from Michigan, filed the suit alleging SNHU allows those platforms to install surveillance software on mySNHU, using tracking pixels and third-party cookies that capture sensitive, personally identifiable information from students who use the site.
The students say SNHU configured these tools deliberately. This wasn’t an accident or a misconfigured setting. The complaint accuses the university of knowingly choosing to share data in order to fuel its marketing machine.
According to court documents, SNHU has more than 3,000 on-campus students and over 200,000 online students, making it one of the fastest-growing universities in the country.
| Case Detail | Information |
|---|---|
| Case Name | Zeolla v. Southern New Hampshire University |
| Case Number | 1:25-cv-00541 |
| Court | U.S. District Court, District of New Hampshire |
| Filed | December 20, 2025 |
| Plaintiffs | Tina Zeolla (MA), Kirsten Kellogg (MI) |
| Status | Pending class certification |
SNHU Class Action Lawsuit 2025: The Full Background
This case didn’t appear out of nowhere. It is part of a larger national wave of pixel-tracking lawsuits hitting universities, hospitals, and financial institutions.
Cases involving third-party data sharing rose 34% in 2024, driven by educational technology expansion. Many of those cases involved the same tools named in the SNHU suit.
What makes the SNHU complaint stand out is the breadth of data involved. Other university cases typically centered on marketing pages or admission portals. This one targets mySNHU, the authenticated portal every student uses daily.
Students are required to use mySNHU to review grades, enroll in courses, apply for financial aid, pay tuition, and access their university email accounts. That means the tracking tools had access to everything students did inside what they reasonably believed was a private academic environment.
Think of it this way: it is like discovering your landlord installed a camera in your bedroom and sold the footage. The portal was never supposed to be a marketing data collection point.
Key Takeaway: The SNHU class action centers on tracking software embedded in a mandatory student portal, making the potential class far larger than typical data cases.
What Data Did SNHU Share With Google and TikTok?
The data allegedly shared covers nearly every sensitive detail a student has on file with their university.
The information SNHU is accused of sharing includes students’ full names, email addresses, phone numbers, addresses, ethnicities, gender identities, career statuses, SNHU student ID numbers, military service status, whether they are first-generation college students, whether they have applied for financial aid, detailed descriptions of every course in which they enrolled, and their cumulative GPAs.
That list is extraordinary. Most data breach lawsuits involve contact information or payment data. This one includes academic records, demographic identifiers, and military status.
According to the complaint, when students performed routine tasks in mySNHU, such as checking their course load or financial aid status, that information was transmitted to Google in plain English, including the student’s full name, email, phone, address, ethnicity, and gender identity.
- Full name and contact details
- Ethnicity and gender identity
- GPA and enrolled course descriptions
- Military service status
- Financial aid application status
- First-generation student status
- SNHU student ID number
SNHU FERPA Violation Explained
FERPA, the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act, is the primary federal law protecting student education records from unauthorized disclosure.
The students allege SNHU violated FERPA by deploying tracking tools on mySNHU that transmitted student data to Google and TikTok without students’ knowledge or authorization.
FERPA applies to any school receiving federal funding. It prohibits disclosing personally identifiable information from education records to third parties without written consent, with limited exceptions. None of those exceptions cover handing data to advertising platforms.
There is a catch, though. The Supreme Court ruled in 2002 that FERPA does not allow private lawsuits, and the Department of Education’s primary enforcement tool is withdrawing federal funding, a penalty that has never actually been imposed.
| FERPA Fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Law enacted | 1974 |
| Governs | Schools receiving federal funding |
| Protects | Education records, personally identifiable info |
| Private lawsuit allowed? | No, per Supreme Court (2002) |
| DOE enforcement | Funding withdrawal (never imposed) |
How Did SNHU Track Students Without Consent?
SNHU used two specific tools to capture and transmit student data: Google Analytics and TikTok Pixel.
The university used a suite of analytics tools, including Google Analytics and TikTok Pixel on its portal. In exchange for access to these business tools, website operators install Google and TikTok’s surveillance software on their websites.
These tools work in the background. Students see nothing unusual when logging in. The tracking happens at the code level, invisible to anyone who is not examining the site’s source code with developer tools.
Without analyzing the network information transmitted by mySNHU through examination of its source code or sophisticated web developer tools, there was no way for students to detect the tracking.
The complaint also explains how browser fingerprinting works. As Google and TikTok continuously compile data over time, their understanding of a user’s browser fingerprint becomes more sophisticated, so they need only a single piece of identifying information to link activity back to that person’s account.
Key Takeaway: The tracking was invisible to students and technically impossible to detect without specialized tools, which is exactly why the complaint frames it as covert surveillance.
mySNHU Student Portal Privacy Breach: What the Portal Is
Understanding what mySNHU is makes the allegations more serious, not less.
mySNHU is not a marketing website. It is the central hub for every enrolled student’s academic life. It holds grades, financial aid records, enrollment data, and personal identity details.
Students enrolled at SNHU are required to use mySNHU to review grades, enroll in courses, apply for financial aid, pay tuition bills, and access SNHU email accounts.
There is no workaround. Students cannot opt out of using mySNHU and still remain enrolled. That mandatory nature is central to the case. Students had no reasonable way to avoid the alleged tracking.
The complaint includes screenshots from back-end network traffic showing data being transmitted to Google in real time when students accessed their accounts. Those screenshots were filed with the court as exhibits.
Zeolla v. Southern New Hampshire University: Case Details
The formal name of this lawsuit is Zeolla v. Southern New Hampshire University, filed under Case No. 1:25-cv-00541 in the District of New Hampshire.
The lead plaintiff is Tina Zeolla, a Massachusetts resident and SNHU student. The second named plaintiff is Kirsten Kellogg, a Michigan resident. Both are represented by attorneys from Weintraub Law and Siri & Glimstad.
The complaint was filed in the United States District Court for the District of New Hampshire, and the plaintiffs are seeking to represent all students who accessed mySNHU.
The case is at the early stage as of early 2026. Class certification has not yet been granted. Until a judge certifies the class, the case proceeds as an individual suit on behalf of the named plaintiffs. Certification is typically the biggest hurdle in class action litigation.
| Legal Detail | Info |
|---|---|
| Lead plaintiff | Tina Zeolla |
| Co-plaintiff | Kirsten Kellogg |
| Law firms | Weintraub Law, Siri & Glimstad |
| Relief sought | Damages, attorney fees, injunction |
| Trial request | Jury trial |
Who Qualifies for the SNHU Class Action?
Any student who used mySNHU may be part of the proposed class, but the class has not been certified yet.
The plaintiffs are asking a federal court to certify the lawsuit as a class action covering all students who have used mySNHU.
That definition is intentionally broad. It covers online students, on-campus students, current students, and former students. If you logged into mySNHU to check a grade, apply for aid, or pay a bill, you could fall within the class definition.
Formal class membership notices are sent after a judge certifies the class. At that point, class members typically have three options:
- Stay in the class: You are automatically included and bound by any settlement or judgment.
- Opt out: You preserve your right to sue SNHU independently.
- Object: You remain in the class but formally challenge the settlement terms.
No action is required right now. The best move is to preserve any documentation showing your use of mySNHU.
Key Takeaway: Over 180,000 SNHU students could potentially qualify, making this one of the largest student-facing data privacy class actions ever filed.
How Many Students Are Affected by the SNHU Lawsuit?
The potential class is enormous by any measure in higher education privacy litigation.
The lawsuit seeks to represent all 183,000-plus students who use mySNHU. That figure makes this case significantly larger than most university data lawsuits. For comparison, many pixel tracking settlements at healthcare systems involved classes of 600,000 to 3 million, but the per-person payout was small.
SNHU is one of the largest online universities in the country, with over 180,000 students, plus approximately 3,000 students enrolled in person at its Manchester campus.
The online-heavy student body is actually relevant here. Online students use mySNHU more intensively than campus students because it is their primary point of contact with the university. Every login potentially triggered a data transmission.
What Laws Did SNHU Allegedly Break?
The complaint names FERPA as the central legal framework, but the plaintiffs structured their claims strategically to work around FERPA’s no-private-lawsuit limitation.
The SNHU plaintiffs likely structured their claims to work around FERPA’s limitations by invoking state law causes of action.
Typical legal theories in pixel tracking cases like this include:
- Violations of state wiretapping or electronic surveillance laws
- Invasion of privacy under state common law
- Unjust enrichment (SNHU benefited from the data sharing financially)
- Breach of contract (students enter a relationship with expectations of privacy)
- Consumer protection statutes
The federal Electronic Communications Privacy Act (ECPA) is also a potential avenue. Courts have increasingly allowed pixel tracking claims to proceed past dismissal motions when the tracking occurs inside authenticated portals.
Courts have shown increasing willingness to allow these cases to proceed past early dismissal motions, recognizing student privacy concerns in the digital age.
SNHU’s Response to the Lawsuit
SNHU has not aggressively pushed back publicly. Its initial response was measured and noncommittal.
SNHU spokesperson Siobhan Lopez stated the university is aware of the lawsuit and reviewing the allegations, adding that SNHU takes data privacy seriously and remains committed to protecting the privacy of students, faculty, and staff in accordance with applicable law.
That kind of statement is standard legal-crisis boilerplate. It neither admits wrongdoing nor mounts a vigorous public defense. It buys time.
What SNHU does in court will tell the real story. The university could file a motion to dismiss, attempt to narrow the class, or eventually open settlement discussions. None of those moves have been reported as of early 2026.
The fact that SNHU configured the TikTok Pixel beyond its default settings is a specific factual allegation in the complaint. That detail matters. Default tracking tools collect general behavior data. The complaint claims SNHU deliberately set up TikTok Pixel to capture the sensitive student-specific fields.
Key Takeaway: SNHU’s public response has been minimal, and the case remains in its early stages in federal court with no settlement announced.
How Pixel Tracking Works in Student Portals
Pixel tracking is widely used across the internet, but using it inside a password-protected educational portal is legally and ethically different from using it on a public marketing page.
A tracking pixel is a tiny piece of code, often a single line of JavaScript, placed on a webpage. When that page loads, the pixel fires and sends data to a third party. For tools like Google Analytics, that data helps website owners understand traffic patterns. For TikTok Pixel, it is primarily used to build advertising audiences.
The problem in the SNHU context is that the portal is not a public webpage. It is an authenticated environment where students log in with their credentials and trust they are accessing private academic records.
When SNHU students perform routine tasks in mySNHU, such as checking their course load or financial aid status, the information transmitted to Google by the tracking tools includes the student’s full name, email address, phone number, address, ethnicity, and gender identity in plain text.
Plain text. Not anonymized. Not hashed. The raw data, readable by anyone intercepting it.
FERPA and Student Privacy Rights: What the Law Actually Protects
FERPA gives students real rights over their education records, but understanding those rights requires clarity about what the law does and does not do.
Under FERPA, students have the right to inspect their own education records, request corrections, and control who those records are shared with. Schools must get written consent before disclosing personally identifiable information from those records to outside parties.
Education records under FERPA cover more than just grades. They include:
- Academic transcripts and GPA
- Course enrollment information
- Financial aid records
- Disciplinary records
- Personally identifiable student information
FERPA privacy rights are granted to parents of dependent students and to current and former students 18 years or older.
The catch is enforcement. Filing a FERPA complaint with the Department of Education is an option, but it does not produce money for affected students. The DOE investigates and can theoretically pull federal funding, but it has never done so.
Comparable University Data Tracking Settlements: What Payouts Look Like
No settlement has been reached in the SNHU case. But looking at comparable pixel tracking settlements gives a realistic sense of what outcomes are possible.
The University of Rochester Medical Center agreed to a $2.85 million settlement to resolve claims related to the use of tracking technology on its website and patient portal.
From 2023 to 2025, hospitals, telehealth platforms, and digital health apps paid over $100 million in penalties and settlements for privacy violations tied to tracking pixel technologies.
The per-person payouts in large class actions tend to be modest. In the Aspen Dental pixel tracking settlement, class members could claim a one-time cash payment of $20 along with identity protection services.
| Case | Settlement Fund | Approx. Per-Person |
|---|---|---|
| University of Rochester Medical Center | $2.85 million | Varies |
| Aspen Dental pixel tracking | $18.5 million | ~$20 cash |
| Advocate Aurora Health (Meta Pixel) | $12.25 million | Varies |
| Mass General Brigham (pixel) | $18.4 million | Varies |
The SNHU class is large. That tends to reduce per-person payouts but increases the total settlement value sought.
Key Takeaway: Pixel tracking settlements typically produce modest individual payouts, but total funds can reach tens of millions, and injunctive relief forcing the university to stop the tracking may matter more to students than the cash.
SNHU Lawsuit Settlement Amount and Payout: What to Expect
There is no settlement yet, and the case is at an early stage. Projecting exact figures is impossible, but the trajectory of similar cases provides context.
Class action pixel tracking cases against institutions with large user bases typically settle in the range of $5 million to $20 million total. Per-person payouts in cases with hundreds of thousands of class members have ranged from $20 to a few hundred dollars, depending on how many people file claims and the size of the fund.
The SNHU complaint asks for:
- Compensatory damages for each class member
- Attorney fees and costs
- Injunctive relief to stop the tracking immediately
- A jury trial
The lawsuit asks for a jury trial and seeks attorney fees, damages, and a ruling preventing SNHU from continuing to share students’ sensitive personal information.
The injunctive relief component could have long-term value even if individual cash payouts are small. A court order forcing SNHU to remove the tracking tools and overhaul its data practices would protect current and future students.
What SNHU Students Should Do Right Now
Students do not need to file anything today, but taking a few steps now puts you in the best position if and when the class is certified.
Document your use of mySNHU. Screenshot any pages showing your enrollment, your GPA access, financial aid status, or any other interaction with the portal. Dates matter. If the class definition ties to specific time periods, documentation showing when you used the portal will be useful.
Keep your contact information updated with SNHU. Class action notices go out by email and mail to the last known address on file. If SNHU cannot reach you, you may miss important deadlines.
Watch for class action notices. Once a judge certifies the class, a formal notice will be mailed or emailed. You will typically have 30 to 60 days to decide whether to stay in the class, opt out, or object. Missing that deadline can forfeit your options.
- Save any SNHU enrollment confirmation emails
- Update your mailing address with the university
- Monitor news coverage and court updates for this case
- Do not assume you are automatically notified in time
Frequently Asked Questions
Who qualifies for the SNHU data sharing class action lawsuit?
Any student who used the mySNHU portal may qualify for the class action.
The proposed class covers all students who accessed mySNHU, including current students, former students, online students, and on-campus students.
No official class has been certified yet, so formal eligibility has not been legally defined by the court.
What personal information did SNHU allegedly share with Google and TikTok?
SNHU allegedly shared students’ full names, phone numbers, email addresses, home addresses, GPAs, ethnicities, gender identities, military status, financial aid data, and course enrollment details.
The data was transmitted when students performed routine tasks in the portal, such as checking grades or applying for financial aid.
This went far beyond basic web analytics and included sensitive academic and demographic information students never agreed to share with advertisers.
How much money could I get from the SNHU class action lawsuit?
No settlement amount has been set, and the case is still in early proceedings as of 2026.
Comparable pixel tracking class action settlements have produced individual payments ranging from $20 to a few hundred dollars, depending on class size and fund amount.
The case also seeks injunctive relief, which could force SNHU to stop the tracking entirely regardless of the cash payout.
Does FERPA let students sue SNHU directly for sharing their data?
FERPA does not allow private lawsuits by individual students or class members.
The Supreme Court decided this in 2002 in Gonzaga University v. Doe, and FERPA complaints go to the Department of Education, not courts.
The SNHU plaintiffs worked around this by filing claims under state privacy and wiretapping laws, which do allow private lawsuits and can carry significant statutory damages.
What should I do right now if I used mySNHU?
Keep records of your portal use, including screenshots and enrollment confirmation emails showing when you accessed mySNHU.
Make sure your current mailing address and email are on file with SNHU so you receive any class action notice.
Watch for updates on class certification, which is the next major legal milestone that will determine whether you are automatically included in the case.
The SNHU data sharing lawsuit is one of the most significant student privacy cases filed at a U.S. university. With over 180,000 potential class members and detailed allegations backed by technical screenshots, this case has real legal teeth.
Stay alert for class certification news. That is the moment your rights as a potential class member come into sharper focus.
Document your portal use, keep your contact details current, and watch for the official class notice. That notice triggers deadlines you cannot afford to miss.
