Below you will find pages that utilize the taxonomy term “privacy”
- kudos:
Canvas: “You can draw conclusions about student participation with our analytics!” Also Canvas: “Mobile page view data aren’t exact, and our analytics only update every 24 hours, so don’t draw too many conclusions, lol.”
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'Madison Square Garden's facial recognition policy ignites debate over the tech : NPR'
- kudos:Glad this story is still getting attention, because it so neatly demonstrates why facial recognition is scary. We shouldn’t tolerate this level of surveillance—by private or public actors. link to ‘Madison Square Garden’s facial recognition policy ignites debate over the tech : NPR’
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'Lexington, Ky Mayor wants to expand license plate cameras | Lexington Herald Leader'
- kudos:I have written council representatives about this more than anything else, and yet I suspect that it will go through again without a fuss. This isn’t the worst form of surveillance, but it is still surveillance, pure and simple. link to ‘Lexington, Ky Mayor wants to expand license plate cameras | Lexington Herald Leader’
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'School Facebook Pages and Privacy Concerns: What Educators Need to Know'
- kudos:Josh is doing important work here—the kind of work that edtech researchers often don’t consider as being in their purview. Glad to see this getting coverage. link to ‘School Facebook Pages and Privacy Concerns: What Educators Need to Know’
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'How to Protect Yourself If Your School Uses Surveillance Tech | WIRED'
- kudos:I hate that there’s a need for articles like this, but I’m glad WIRED is putting them together. link to ‘How to Protect Yourself If Your School Uses Surveillance Tech | WIRED’
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'Pluralistic: 07 Oct 2022 “Don’t install spy on a privacy lab,” and other lessons for university provosts – Pluralistic: Daily links from Cory Doctorow'
- kudos:There is so much of both horrible and hopeful in this story. The way we’re normalizing surveillance is really worrying, and I’m glad some people are fighting back. link to ‘Pluralistic: 07 Oct 2022 “Don’t install spy on a privacy lab,” and other lessons for university provosts – Pluralistic: Daily links from Cory Doctorow’
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'When School Superintendents Market Surveillance Cameras'
- kudos:Lot of worrying stuff in here. Edtech needs to take surveillance tech more seriously, because the two are increasingly simultaneous. link to ‘When School Superintendents Market Surveillance Cameras’
Lance Eaton on the invasive surveillance of LMSs
- kudos:This week, I’m hurriedly putting together some revisions for a book chapter on data ethics that I’ve been working on for an open access volume on ethics in educational technology. I’m excited about the volume, and I’ve really loved writing the chapter, so it’s kind of fun to be doing these revisions, even if I waited for the last minute to do them. One reviewer suggestion that I’m particularly grateful for is to elaborate on a sentence I wrote arguing that “learning management systems allow us to monitor students in invasive ways that would be unimaginable in a face-to-face context.
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'The Ungodly Surveillance of Anti-Porn ‘Shameware’ Apps | WIRED'
- kudos:I had heard about this kind of software at a conference last year, but reading about it just makes it scarier. link to ‘The Ungodly Surveillance of Anti-Porn ‘Shameware’ Apps | WIRED’
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on '‘Ring Nation’ Is a Terrible Idea That’s Unstoppable Because Amazon Owns Everything'
- kudos:I missed the vertical integration aspect of this in earlier reporting I’ve read. It makes this story even worse. link to ‘‘Ring Nation’ Is a Terrible Idea That’s Unstoppable Because Amazon Owns Everything’
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'Dozens of civil rights groups are calling on Amazon and MGM to cancel Ring Nation reality show - The Verge'
- kudos:This is a gross idea for a TV show, and I’m glad people are pushing back against it. link to ‘Dozens of civil rights groups are calling on Amazon and MGM to cancel Ring Nation reality show - The Verge’
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'Everyone should join the “cult of privacy.”'
- kudos:Caring about privacy ought to be common sense. It’s difficult to push back, but that doesn’t mean those of us who do are crazy. link to ‘Everyone should join the “cult of privacy.”’
new report on Google Classroom and ClassDojo
- kudos:I have been writing a lot about ClassDojo recently, spurred by a combination of my professional concerns about the app and by my frustration that my kid’s school is now using it. Last week, I was pleased to see a new report from the United Kingdom-based Digital Futures Commission about not only ClassDojo but also Google Classroom. I’m sure my kid will have to use this latter software as well, so it’s good to be aware.
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'It’s Time to Get Real About TikTok’s Risks | WIRED'
- kudos:It isn’t that TikTok doesn’t pose a real threat, it’s that it’s not alone in doing so. In particular, I appreciate that this article points out that U.S. border agents REGULARLY SEARCH COMPUTERS AND SOCIAL MEDIA ACCOUNTS. So, yes, raise concerns, but be consistent instead of creating a moral panic around thus one app (which, by the way, would be a privacy threat even if it were totally owned by a U.
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'The Humiliating History of the TSA'
- kudos:What a story. I knew how awful the TSA could be to passengers, but I never knew how bad it also was for its own employees. link to ‘The Humiliating History of the TSA’
data privacy and kiddo's school
- kudos:In addition to all the irritating ClassDojo stuff going on at kiddo’s school, I’ve also spent some time banging my head against the wall made up of two forms: One to opt out of FERPA directory information sharing, and the other to opt out of kiddo’s information being shared with media outlets. I’m too tired tonight to get into all the details of what’s been going on, but the short version is that there’s no (clear, easy) way for spouse and I to request that kiddo’s name and image not be shared on school social media without also insisting that kiddo’s name and image not appear in innocuous things like… a school yearbook.
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'Scanning student rooms during remote tests is unconstitutional, judge rules : NPR'
- kudos:Well, here’s some happy news! I hope this ruling sticks. link to ‘Scanning student rooms during remote tests is unconstitutional, judge rules : NPR’
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'Erik Prince wants to sell you a secure smartphone that's too good to be true | MIT Technology Review'
- kudos:Interesting read on privacy-focused phones—and related scams. link to ‘Erik Prince wants to sell you a “secure” smartphone that’s too good to be true | MIT Technology Review’
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'A Tool That Monitors How Long Kids Are in the Bathroom Is Now in 1,000 American Schools'
- kudos:I’ve been grumpy about ClassDojo all week, and this is the only thing that’s made me feel better about it—BECAUSE THIS IS SO MUCH WORSE. link to ‘A Tool That Monitors How Long Kids Are in the Bathroom Is Now in 1,000 American Schools’
parent agency and edtech
- kudos:I’ve been blogging about ClassDojo enough over the past few weeks that I think it’s time for a quick recap before sharing some of the latest developments. I heard about ClassDojo being used schoolwide back in late July and started wondering what approach I should take as both a student’s parent and an edtech researcher. On Monday of this week, I talked to kiddo’s teacher about it and wrote up some thoughts the next day about teachers’ diminished agency in the realm of edtech.
emailing principal about edtech concerns
- kudos:I really will get back to blogging on other subjects sometime soon, but here’s an email I just sent to kiddo’s principal raising some concerns I have going into the school year. I’m not sure what will come of this—and I’m not at all sure this was the right email to write—but in the off-chance it’s helpful for someone, I thought I’d post about it here. Dear Principal [so-and-so], We are very excited to be joining the VPE community this year: Our daughter is excited to be starting kindergarten, and we are happy to see how supportive, welcoming, and organized everyone has been.
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'This Is the Data Facebook Gave Police to Prosecute a Teenager for Abortion'
- kudos:Compelling example of the need for digital privacy in a post-Row world. link to ‘This Is the Data Facebook Gave Police to Prosecute a Teenager for Abortion’
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'Kids Are Back in Classrooms and Laptops Are Still Spying on Them'
- kudos:Some really worrying privacy implications in this kind of edtech—and edtech as a discipline doesn’t care nearly enough about this kind of thing. Makes me worried as a scholar and a parent. link to ‘Kids Are Back in Classrooms and Laptops Are Still Spying on Them’
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'Marco Rubio Pretends To Be A TikTok Privacy Champion, Despite Years Of Undermining U.S. Consumer Privacy | Techdirt'
- kudos:Concern about privacy is good, but not when it’s Sinophobic posturing. Yes, what TikTok is doing is worrying and problematic, but Bode makes an important point here: If they aren’t willing to fix the broader infrastructure, stances like Rubio’s just come down to trying to score cheap political points. link to ‘Marco Rubio Pretends To Be A TikTok Privacy Champion, Despite Years Of Undermining U.S. Consumer Privacy | Techdirt’
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'After Dobbs, Advocates Fear School Surveillance Tools Could Put Teens at Risk – The Markup'
- kudos:I’ve seen a number of headlines about how a post-Dobbs world changes the game for online privacy, but this is the first one that I sat down to read. School surveillance software is scary enough without this possibility, so let’s not make it worse. I can’t believe that this software gives schools any benefits that outweigh the heavy cost to students’ privacy. link to ‘After Dobbs, Advocates Fear School Surveillance Tools Could Put Teens at Risk – The Markup’
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'The Myopic Focus On TikTok Privacy Issues Remains Kind Of Weird | Techdirt'
- kudos:Good writing here. Vague Sinophobia drives a lot of media and political concerns, and I appreciate Bode’s challenging of that here. link to ‘The Myopic Focus On TikTok Privacy Issues Remains Kind Of Weird | Techdirt’
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'Facebook Is Receiving Sensitive Medical Information from Hospital Websites – The Markup'
- kudos:Well this is terrifying. link to ‘Facebook Is Receiving Sensitive Medical Information from Hospital Websites – The Markup’
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'Sweeping Legislation Aims to Ban the Sale of Location Data'
- kudos:Yes please. link to ‘Sweeping Legislation Aims to Ban the Sale of Location Data’
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'How You’re Still Being Tracked on the Internet - The New York Times'
- kudos:Frustrating to see steps that feel like progress seem to shore up the tech giants I hoped were being kept in check. link to ‘How You’re Still Being Tracked on the Internet - The New York Times’
- kudos:
The focus on student learning in this year’s AECT reviews is good, but I worry that it blinds us to other important ed tech questions. I’d struggle to describe how surveillance, ethics, privacy impact student learning, but we desperately need that research too-or more!
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'This journalist’s Otter.ai scare is a reminder that cloud transcription isn’t completely private - The Verge'
- kudos:Doing transcription yourself sucks. It’s long and tedious, and the final product never feels worth all the effort you put into it. For all that, though, this is exactly why services like Otter have never sat well with me. link to ‘This journalist’s Otter.ai scare is a reminder that cloud transcription isn’t completely private - The Verge’
🔗 linkblog: just finished 'German Police Caught Using COVID-Tracing Data To Search For Crime Witnesses | Techdirt'
- kudos:Contract tracing is good, but apps for it are scary. Ugh. link to ‘German Police Caught Using COVID-Tracing Data To Search For Crime Witnesses | Techdirt’
🔗 linkblog: just finished 'French regulator tells Clearview AI to delete its facial recognition data - The Verge'
- kudos:Vive la France ! 🇫🇷🇫🇷🇫🇷 link to ‘French regulator tells Clearview AI to delete its facial recognition data - The Verge’
🔗 linkblog: just finished 'Twitter reportedly suspended accounts by mistake after extremists abused new private media policy - The Verge'
- kudos:Not a great look. link to ‘Twitter reportedly suspended accounts by mistake after extremists abused new private media policy - The Verge’
🔗 linkblog: just finished 'Twitter policy aimed at improving privacy sparks concerns over misuse : NPR'
- kudos:File this under bad solutions to worse problems. link to ‘Twitter policy aimed at improving privacy sparks concerns over misuse : NPR’
🔗 linkblog: just finished 'Qualcomm’s new always-on smartphone camera is a privacy nightmare - The Verge'
- kudos:Takes some real self-confidence to describe an always-on camera as a feature, not a nightmarish bug. link to ‘Qualcomm’s new always-on smartphone camera is a privacy nightmare - The Verge’