https://www.washingtonpost.com/tech...m-parents-are-struggling-keep-up/?arc404=true
A digital hall-pass app that tracks bathroom trips is the latest school software to raise privacy concerns
Heather Kelly
October 29
When Christian Chase wants to take a bathroom break at his high school, he can’t just raise his hand.
Instead, the 17-year-old senior makes a special request on his school-issued Chromebook computer. A teacher approves it pending any red flags in the system, such as another student he should avoid out in the hall at the same time, then logs him back in on his return. If he were out of class for more than a set amount of time, the application would summon an administrator to check on him.
Heritage High School in Loudoun County, Va., introduced the software, called e-Hallpass, in September as a way to track trips to the bathroom, the nurse’s office, the principal or other places on campus. It collects the data for each student’s comings and goings so approved administrators can see pass histories or look for patterns.
“I just think it’s a violation of our privacy, and I don’t think it’s something that needs to be in place. I would understand if it was something for specific people or even underclassmen,” said Chase, who started an online petition on Change.org to remove the technology he calls invasive.
As technology becomes more pervasive in schools, parents and students are getting a lesson in data privacy. Every year, they face the overwhelming task of sorting through the benefits, drawbacks and privacy implications of each piece of educational software. Families have to decide if they are comfortable with how information is being collected and used and whether they want to — or even can — opt their kids out.
[Legislators ask firms to explain how they use the ‘vast amount of data’ they collect on students]
Hundreds of applications, big and small, are being used at schools across the country to do everything from track homework to modify behavior. They can collect data about intelligence, disciplinary issues, personalities and schedules.
It is common for families to take precautions outside of school, enforcing screen time rules at home and limiting what photos they post of their children on social media. But controlling what happens at school is harder, in part because districts are not required to inform parents of every type of software students use. And the apps, as well as the schools deploying them, have different rules for how they use, share and store data.
There are classroom management tools like Google’s G Suite for Education that tracks school work and helps teachers, parents and students communicate via messaging and email. Smaller apps such as ClassDojo, which claims to be in use at 90 percent of K-8 schools in the United States, tackle specific subjects or problems. That app lets teachers communicate with parents and grant students virtual points for positive behaviors like teamwork or subtract them for negative actions like being out of their chair. Newer “personalized learning” programs attempt to develop custom education plans for students based on data they collect about their interests and skills.
Google, ClassDojo and E-Hallpass say in their privacy policies that student data is not shared with third-party companies for marketing or advertising, and parents can request deletion. E-Hallpass says schools are entirely in charge of the data the program collects and can delete it as often as they like.
Advocates for using these types of software say they can revolutionize education, helping students gain valuable skills to prepare them for college and then the workplace. Research on the technology is still in the early stages.
Still, privacy advocates say parents face a conundrum. Though there have been some improvements, the education technology industry as a whole is still lagging in privacy protections, with many apps still selling easily de-anonymized data and tracking users, said Girard Kelly, counsel and director of privacy review at Common Sense Media, a nonprofit organization that reviews technology and media targeting young people.
School districts increasingly have their own data privacy agreements for third-parties, but with anywhere from 200 to 600 applications being used across all schools and grades in a single district, by Kelly’s estimate, screening every classroom tool can be difficult.
As a result, families are often left on their own trying to navigate a confusing maze of privacy agreements, school policies and federal privacy regulations.
“Everyone feels overwhelmed, everyone feels like they don’t know what they’re doing, and that’s because the technology is not transparent and does not allow for easy understanding of what your kid is using,” said Monica Bulger, a research affiliate at the independent, nonprofit Data and Society Research Institute.
[Personal data is collected on kids at school all the time. Here’s help for parents to protect children’s privacy.]
It is reflective of a broader distrust in big tech. According to a Pew Research Center survey last year, only a quarter of Americans think tech companies “do enough to protect the personal data of their users."
Some parents do manage to comb through privacy policies, opt-out of classroom programs and ask to have students’ data wiped from company servers — even when it puts them at odds with their kids’ own schools.
Kristin Phatak was recently notified her 11th-grader was using a program called Thrively, which asks students to take a personality assessment and then uses the answers to determine their “strengths," recommending careers or skills they should learn.
Her son had already used it once, so Phatak asked her school at the Sweetwater Union High School District in Chula Vista, Calif., to opt him out, to see a copy of the data the company collected about him and for the company to delete any information about him. First, the principal suggested she speak with Thrively’s CEO so he could directly address her concerns.
“As a parent, why am I having to go through this? Why is the principal of our school on a first-name basis with the CEO of a company who is collecting data about our kids?” said Phatak. She eventually received a copy of the data and was told it was deleted, but then her child’s teacher accidentally had him use the tool again.
Sweetwater school officials did not reply to repeated requests for comment. Thrively’s CEO Girish Venkat said the incident was an anomaly, but that he does try to talk to parents who request that their kids’ data be deleted. Of the four parents who have asked, he says all but one decided to let their kid keep using Thrively. The tool is used by roughly 1 million kids, he added.
Thrively’s privacy policy says it does not sell or rent user data, but like many education apps, it can use depersonalized and aggregated information to market products to parents.
“Many parents are upset about the lack of privacy involved with the data going into private corporate hands and how their education is being outsourced to tech companies,” said Leonie Haimson, head of the Parent Coalition for Student Privacy, an advocacy group that gives parents guidance on navigating school data issues.
She recommends making an appointment with a teacher or school principal to ask questions, including what programs are in use, who has access to the data, if the companies are barred from using the information for marketing and if the programs are in compliance with state and federal privacy laws.
Federal laws put some limits on how software is used by schools. The Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act of 1974 limits how schools can share educational records and gives parents the right to review them. TheChildren’s Online Privacy Protection Act has rules that apply to companies collecting data about kids under 13. However, under the law, schools can consent on behalf of parents for educational products. The Federal Trade Commission is considering updating COPPA.
Parents also have rights under the Protection of Pupil Rights Amendment, which requires schools to get parental permission for any federally funded student survey or sensitive topic evaluations, such as religion, political views or income. But for the most part, schools are not legally obligated to get permission from parents to use specific software in classrooms, or to let students opt out.
[Parkland school turns to experimental surveillance software that can flag students as threats]
Some schools, like those in the Montgomery County public school district in Rockville, Md., are more receptive to parents policing their children’s technology. Ellen Zavian, a lawyer and professor at George Washington University Law School, has cleared her middle-school aged son to use Google’s education software, but not ClassDojo.
“At the beginning of every school year I send the principal what my son’s allowed to be on and what he’s not allowed to be on, and thus far my local schools have been incredibly supportive and have been willing to learn from me as I have been willing to learn from them,” Zavian said. “My goal is to give my child the smallest footprint possible, to give him the largest opportunity possible.”
To help parents and educators make decisions, Common Sense Media examines education-technology privacy policies and looks at factors such as whether data is sold to third parties or if the apps include ads. An application might be dinged for not saying whether it tracks users or created ad profiles, and get points for storing data securely. (The project is funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, which is invested in edTech, and Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s philanthropic organization, The Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, which makes the personalized learning program Summit Learning.)
Common Sense Media found both ClassDojo and the stand-alone Google Classroom tool to have sufficient privacy policies — enough to get a green check mark and a “Use responsibly” label — meaning they met the organization’s minimum privacy requirements. Points were subtracted from ClassDojo’s overall score for its system for obtaining parental consent, while Google Classroom was dinged for how much data it collected.
A digital hall-pass app that tracks bathroom trips is the latest school software to raise privacy concerns
Heather Kelly
October 29
When Christian Chase wants to take a bathroom break at his high school, he can’t just raise his hand.
Instead, the 17-year-old senior makes a special request on his school-issued Chromebook computer. A teacher approves it pending any red flags in the system, such as another student he should avoid out in the hall at the same time, then logs him back in on his return. If he were out of class for more than a set amount of time, the application would summon an administrator to check on him.
Heritage High School in Loudoun County, Va., introduced the software, called e-Hallpass, in September as a way to track trips to the bathroom, the nurse’s office, the principal or other places on campus. It collects the data for each student’s comings and goings so approved administrators can see pass histories or look for patterns.
“I just think it’s a violation of our privacy, and I don’t think it’s something that needs to be in place. I would understand if it was something for specific people or even underclassmen,” said Chase, who started an online petition on Change.org to remove the technology he calls invasive.
As technology becomes more pervasive in schools, parents and students are getting a lesson in data privacy. Every year, they face the overwhelming task of sorting through the benefits, drawbacks and privacy implications of each piece of educational software. Families have to decide if they are comfortable with how information is being collected and used and whether they want to — or even can — opt their kids out.
[Legislators ask firms to explain how they use the ‘vast amount of data’ they collect on students]
Hundreds of applications, big and small, are being used at schools across the country to do everything from track homework to modify behavior. They can collect data about intelligence, disciplinary issues, personalities and schedules.
It is common for families to take precautions outside of school, enforcing screen time rules at home and limiting what photos they post of their children on social media. But controlling what happens at school is harder, in part because districts are not required to inform parents of every type of software students use. And the apps, as well as the schools deploying them, have different rules for how they use, share and store data.
There are classroom management tools like Google’s G Suite for Education that tracks school work and helps teachers, parents and students communicate via messaging and email. Smaller apps such as ClassDojo, which claims to be in use at 90 percent of K-8 schools in the United States, tackle specific subjects or problems. That app lets teachers communicate with parents and grant students virtual points for positive behaviors like teamwork or subtract them for negative actions like being out of their chair. Newer “personalized learning” programs attempt to develop custom education plans for students based on data they collect about their interests and skills.
Google, ClassDojo and E-Hallpass say in their privacy policies that student data is not shared with third-party companies for marketing or advertising, and parents can request deletion. E-Hallpass says schools are entirely in charge of the data the program collects and can delete it as often as they like.
Advocates for using these types of software say they can revolutionize education, helping students gain valuable skills to prepare them for college and then the workplace. Research on the technology is still in the early stages.
Still, privacy advocates say parents face a conundrum. Though there have been some improvements, the education technology industry as a whole is still lagging in privacy protections, with many apps still selling easily de-anonymized data and tracking users, said Girard Kelly, counsel and director of privacy review at Common Sense Media, a nonprofit organization that reviews technology and media targeting young people.
School districts increasingly have their own data privacy agreements for third-parties, but with anywhere from 200 to 600 applications being used across all schools and grades in a single district, by Kelly’s estimate, screening every classroom tool can be difficult.
As a result, families are often left on their own trying to navigate a confusing maze of privacy agreements, school policies and federal privacy regulations.
“Everyone feels overwhelmed, everyone feels like they don’t know what they’re doing, and that’s because the technology is not transparent and does not allow for easy understanding of what your kid is using,” said Monica Bulger, a research affiliate at the independent, nonprofit Data and Society Research Institute.
[Personal data is collected on kids at school all the time. Here’s help for parents to protect children’s privacy.]
It is reflective of a broader distrust in big tech. According to a Pew Research Center survey last year, only a quarter of Americans think tech companies “do enough to protect the personal data of their users."
Some parents do manage to comb through privacy policies, opt-out of classroom programs and ask to have students’ data wiped from company servers — even when it puts them at odds with their kids’ own schools.
Kristin Phatak was recently notified her 11th-grader was using a program called Thrively, which asks students to take a personality assessment and then uses the answers to determine their “strengths," recommending careers or skills they should learn.
Her son had already used it once, so Phatak asked her school at the Sweetwater Union High School District in Chula Vista, Calif., to opt him out, to see a copy of the data the company collected about him and for the company to delete any information about him. First, the principal suggested she speak with Thrively’s CEO so he could directly address her concerns.
“As a parent, why am I having to go through this? Why is the principal of our school on a first-name basis with the CEO of a company who is collecting data about our kids?” said Phatak. She eventually received a copy of the data and was told it was deleted, but then her child’s teacher accidentally had him use the tool again.
Sweetwater school officials did not reply to repeated requests for comment. Thrively’s CEO Girish Venkat said the incident was an anomaly, but that he does try to talk to parents who request that their kids’ data be deleted. Of the four parents who have asked, he says all but one decided to let their kid keep using Thrively. The tool is used by roughly 1 million kids, he added.
Thrively’s privacy policy says it does not sell or rent user data, but like many education apps, it can use depersonalized and aggregated information to market products to parents.
“Many parents are upset about the lack of privacy involved with the data going into private corporate hands and how their education is being outsourced to tech companies,” said Leonie Haimson, head of the Parent Coalition for Student Privacy, an advocacy group that gives parents guidance on navigating school data issues.
She recommends making an appointment with a teacher or school principal to ask questions, including what programs are in use, who has access to the data, if the companies are barred from using the information for marketing and if the programs are in compliance with state and federal privacy laws.
Federal laws put some limits on how software is used by schools. The Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act of 1974 limits how schools can share educational records and gives parents the right to review them. TheChildren’s Online Privacy Protection Act has rules that apply to companies collecting data about kids under 13. However, under the law, schools can consent on behalf of parents for educational products. The Federal Trade Commission is considering updating COPPA.
Parents also have rights under the Protection of Pupil Rights Amendment, which requires schools to get parental permission for any federally funded student survey or sensitive topic evaluations, such as religion, political views or income. But for the most part, schools are not legally obligated to get permission from parents to use specific software in classrooms, or to let students opt out.
[Parkland school turns to experimental surveillance software that can flag students as threats]
Some schools, like those in the Montgomery County public school district in Rockville, Md., are more receptive to parents policing their children’s technology. Ellen Zavian, a lawyer and professor at George Washington University Law School, has cleared her middle-school aged son to use Google’s education software, but not ClassDojo.
“At the beginning of every school year I send the principal what my son’s allowed to be on and what he’s not allowed to be on, and thus far my local schools have been incredibly supportive and have been willing to learn from me as I have been willing to learn from them,” Zavian said. “My goal is to give my child the smallest footprint possible, to give him the largest opportunity possible.”
To help parents and educators make decisions, Common Sense Media examines education-technology privacy policies and looks at factors such as whether data is sold to third parties or if the apps include ads. An application might be dinged for not saying whether it tracks users or created ad profiles, and get points for storing data securely. (The project is funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, which is invested in edTech, and Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s philanthropic organization, The Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, which makes the personalized learning program Summit Learning.)
Common Sense Media found both ClassDojo and the stand-alone Google Classroom tool to have sufficient privacy policies — enough to get a green check mark and a “Use responsibly” label — meaning they met the organization’s minimum privacy requirements. Points were subtracted from ClassDojo’s overall score for its system for obtaining parental consent, while Google Classroom was dinged for how much data it collected.
status to getting microchipped by their jobs...
........
