NYT: Privacy Concerns For ClassDojo, Other Tracking Apps For Schoolchildren

theodp writes: The NY Times' Natasha Singer files a report on popular and controversial behavior tracking app ClassDojo, which teachers use to keep a running tally of each student's score, award virtual badges for obedience, and to communicate with parents about their child's progress. "I like it because you get rewarded for your good behavior — like a dog does when it gets a treat," was one third grader's testimonial. Some parents, teachers and privacy law scholars say ClassDojo (investors) — along with other unproven technologies that record sensitive information about students — is being adopted without sufficiently considering the ramifications for data privacy and fairness. "ClassDojo," writes Singer, "does not seek explicit parental consent for teachers to log detailed information about a child's conduct. Although the app's terms of service state that teachers who sign up guarantee that their schools have authorized them to do so, many teachers can download ClassDojo, and other free apps, without vetting by school supervisors. Neither the New York City nor Los Angeles school districts, for example, keep track of teachers independently using apps."

A high school teacher interviewed for the article confessed to having not read ClassDojo's policies on handling student data, saying: "I'm one of those people who, when the terms of service are 18 pages, I just click agree." And, if all this doesn't make you parents just a tad nervous, check out this response to the "Has anyone ran a data analysis on their CD data?" question posed to the Class Dojo Community: "I needed to analyze data in regards to a student being placed on ADHD medicine to see whether or not he made any improvements. I have also used it to determine any behavioral changes depending on if a student was with mom/dad for a custody review. I use dojo consistently, so I LOVE getting to use the data to evaluate and share with parents, or even administrators."

Comments

Disappointing article

[Pollux]

It's quite shallow. Another app harvesting data from schoolkids. Privacy policy is vague. Teachers don't care because it's useful. Parents try to care but don't really. There's really nothing new here that deepens the discussion about the continuing erosion of student privacy.

Anyone really looking for a good read on that subject should turn back to the May Politico article highlighted earlier on Slashdot. Also interesting to note is how some companies are pledging to no longer mine student data, as well as companies that were notably absent from signing that pledge, including the one that promised to stop collecting student data last April.

Re:most of that info used to be tracked on paper

[pipedwho]

According to slashdot, copying data does not take anything away from the owner of the data, so there is no harm done.

Oh, wait... you mean it can harm them in other ways, like loss of market for the product, or loss of privacy? You don't say....

No, the prevailing ideology around here is that once data has been made public (ie. publication), it is no longer private and therefore cannot be 'taken' or 'stolen'. And that the action of copying this data doesn't necessarily cause a net harm to the original creator(s) of the work.

However, data that is private can be stolen and that is why this type of thing is frowned upon. Just because some 5 year old kid is in some private database does not mean that it is now free for everyman and his dog to mine or archive. Likewise to your private photo collection, your conversations in your living room, your bedside diary, etc.

TV images of when you ran through the town square naked? Not private either.

See the difference between reality and your straw man?