Schools surveil and collect data on children without your informed consent. School districts vary with respect to their Education Technology (EdTech) heavy handedness; but in my opinion one EdTech application is too many—it is data collection at risk of breach.

Our country is based on consent of the governed. Consent. Our founders fought for our liberty from British soldiers being stationed in our homes. Our thoughts, ideas, skills, and creations are our personal property.

Children are told they must use software in school, load apps on their personal phones, and/or operate web applications while on their home (owned) networks. When data is collected without consent, my definition of that is: spyware—especially when you ask to see what has been collected, who gets access, and they will NOT tell you. If you think laws are protecting you, think again; laws have loopholes.

Many school districts effectively mandate use of software that stations itself INSIDE our homes and personal property. Even worse, some of the software will report on your child if the AI is triggered! Don’t trigger the AI, the math might find your child dangerous, even when they are not in school.

We are not told:

• What data is collected,
• Every entity data is shared with,
• How long specific data will be kept,
• What is monitored on our home networks or cell phones,
• If it is collecting keystroke patterns (biometrics), or
• If data is used or shared to develop new educational products. (without compensation or consent as allowed under Florida’s SOPIPA law)

I could go on and on about what they don’t tell us. You get the idea.

As a parent, you are unlikely to receive the complete data held in association with your child’s identity by a third party—a third party the school district is effectively requiring your child interact with in school (or at home). I know, I fought for this data for YEARS. Letters, phone calls, federal complaints (FERPA), state complaints, etc.

Is EdTech a scam?!…where the district claims they protect your data but warns you no system can be 100% secure. They admit it—they CANNOT guarantee this data will be kept secure. This data is very attractive to hackers, and your children generate the data (money) that fuels this hundred-billion dollar plus industry.

Having data on paper is WAY more secure; how many people around the world are going to show up at the school’s front door attempting to steal the paper? Data held online in an application or storage database can be maliciously sought by anyone around the world. Not only is paper more secure, it will not lead to hundreds of millions of data points being collected on a single student.

If your state tells you that you have a right to see the data held in educational record then they need to prove it, because in Florida, I could not get the data.

Parental Rights—my %$$!

We refuse to agree to vendor policies and terms (contract) to access data schools should be freely sharing with parents, without requiring we contract with a third party to get it! They are holding a small portion of my kid’s data hostage (inside an app) unless I agree to these no-choice contracts. The bulk of the data held by those third parties, the district just won’t provide at all.

Parents: You are feeding the beast when you agree to third party contracts and install what I consider spyware on your phone.

There is no compelling state interest in this pervasive online data collection in school. It is unconstitutional.

Even if the software only collected metadata, which it innately does, I have the right to deny its use or pick and choose where I am willing to take a risk—I decide how much risk and exposure I want for my children and family online. Metadata is powerful information and based on school contracts I have read, it appears metadata is owned by the third party vendor who retains the right to use it as they see fit.

If they tell you metadata is de-identified, I would not be the first or the last to challenge the practical truth of that statement. Such claims are sophistry at work. Besides, I don’t care if it is anonymized, de-identified, or made into some ridiculously loopholed language or not, they would not have mountains of data from which to profit or surveil without USING our children (for profit). This is the business model of EdTech.

These technologies collect a boatload more than just metadata. EdTech can even retain intellectual property (IP) under the fair use doctrine. It seems though that fair use would mean you’ve published your original work or voluntarily given your IP to someone. Is it fair use when you are told you HAVE to give it away for mandatory schooling in an app without compensation?

This is no longer turn in your paper and the teacher gives it back. Your thoughts and ideas are gone. AI can train on your words and your ideas. You will never know if AI took your inventive idea for someone else. How will you know if a corporation used AI to siphon your ideas from your student paper for their own use?

Schools are becoming completely dependent on third parties to operate. These third parties get access to your child’s data, they can use it to train their AI, they can use it to surveil your children, and develop or improve new products in their portfolio (that they will use for profit). Your children’s data are the fuel for their profits. Our school district is far along in this tyrannical data collection scheme and the obliteration of parental rights.

How much of your child’s soul are you willing to let them to take?

Source: The Blue Dot, Issue No. 13,UNESCO MGIEP
MGIEP: Mahatma Gandhi Institute of Education for Peace and Sustainable Development