Digital Privacy, Security, FIPPA and Acceptable Use Policies

In the current education system, almost all countries have implemented k-12. Online education data inventory has brought great benefits to educators. On the contrary, its shortcomings are now the focus of the attention of parents and students which is privacy.

“seven major obstacles to building data-driven education, including institutional resistance, hostility to using data in the classroom, a lack of effective tools, inadequate teacher training, flawed data infrastructure, systemic ‘chicken or egg’ challenges, and, perhaps most significantly, privacy

fears” [emphasis added] (New 2016, p. 19)

 It mentioned six concerns traditionally associated with privacy and particularly in the context of K-12 education. The six “privacy” concerns are: information privacy; anonymity; surveillance; autonomy; non-discrimination; and ownership of information

The first concern caused by big data is that the collection of personal information should be done with the knowledge of the individual, and the amount of information should be minimized to the amount of information that needs to be collected for a specific purpose.

A third concern that is often subsumed under the privacy rubric involves the surveillance or tracking that provides more, and more detailed information, for big data analytics—and that big data require to be even more power. For example, these edtech applications can also track where students work (home, school, computer lab) and time of day, and can record other students working on the same program at that time.

The fourth ethical concern is autonomy. All tracking information can be input into the predictive analysis program to determine the student’s learning patterns, strengths and weaknesses, and provide suggestions on how to best personalize the student’s learning environment.

Autonomy is related to the fifth focus of big data. The principle is to treat individuals fairly and equally, without discrimination based on race, gender, age or other personal attributes. Tene and Polonet-sky pointed out the dangers of predictive analytics, including long-standing prejudices and increased social stratification (2013). This concern involves description and discrimination issues.

Regarding privacy, especially information privacy, the sixth issue that has long been debated is the issue of personal data ownership. As people progress from submitting personal information to an organization or clicking “I agree” on a website, ownership of that information may gradually decrease.

Privacy issues may cause students to lose confidence, be discriminated against, the decline in grades, and other psychological and physical safety. It is necessary to strengthen the protection of privacy.

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