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#PRIVACY4ALL

STUDENT DATA PRIVACY

STUDENT DATA PRIVACY

What you consider to be your childhood is just another data set used to fuel algorithms.

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IDH STUDENT DATA PRIVACY

VICTORIES and PRESS

“Students Tackle Big Questions of Online Privacy Rights.”  Creighton News.  Omaha, NE:  May 20, 2023.

“Privacy 3.0: Forgiveness and Student Data After Mahoney.” International 

Vincentian Business Ethics Conference.  Chicago: DePaul University.  With Thomas Freeman, Simon Truatman, and Amanda Aherns.  October 2021. Invited.

“Privacy 3.0: Using Narrative Theory to Forgive, Forget, and Re-Program Digital Dignity.”  With Thomas Freeman.  Data, Law, and AI Ethics Research Colloquium. Organizers: Indiana University, Virginia Tech, and University of Pennsylvania.  Online.  April 2022.  Invited.

STUDENT DATA PRIVACY HARMS

School systems record participation, behavior, progress, scores, development, and much more.

These data points -- the lives of our students -- are used to draw conclusions that impact students’ futures. In some cases, schools and education programs use this data to predict mental health and even crime rates. Attempting to predict the future with this data is called “risk identification,” and it starts by data-fying your childhood.

  • Why is this so dangerous?

    We have already seen an overwhelming amount of bias in the education system, and how poor funding and systemic issues have long-lasting effects on student demographics. In a bid to help the system, algorithms are employed to make things better.

  • Unfortunately, a robot’s ability to help humans is (always) limited. Our children shouldn't be the guinea pigs.

     Algorithms are already known to exacerbate systemic biases in the systems they’re deployed to serve. Though the hearts of those using these algorithms may be in the right place, the dangers of mishandled data is immense. Schools have already begun to implement algorithms that track student social media accounts, monitoring students beyond the realm of academia. Students had already lost a degree of their privacy when they were put into the education system, and now this monitoring extends beyond the school walls
     

  • These students that are being datafied are minors. They’re still developing, yet we allow these untested algorithms to monitor students like lab rats.

    Some states haven't updated their student privacy laws since 2006. That's over 15 years of technological advancements unaccounted for. The confines of school halls hold only so much of a child’s life, yet these algorithms make decisions that could mar these students for their entire lives without the student even knowing. Do we really want unchecked technology deciding the future for the next generation?

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