Please find my submission for A1 below. As we increasingly make use of mobile phones as important learning tools in our classrooms I have begun wondering what role we as educators will play in issues around data privacy. Yes, there are many lists available with vetted apps in states and schools but I’ve come to realize data privacy is becoming an increasingly important issue in Ed. Tech. that requires more attention. To help me in this assignment I used the following questions as guidance:
-What kind of data is collected on me when I use my phone?
-Do I have some kind of say in the matter?
-How is this data used?
-Is there some kind of secret data harvesting I should know about?
-Last but most importantly, how does this impact me as an educator?
If you are having trouble viewing the embedded video here, please follow this link to the same video posted on YouTube.
Hi Carla
Your video is magnificent. I am working with Apps about people’s diseases and frailties. Apps can help a lot from diagnosis to treatments and follow up. However, this personal data about the patient’s condition is confidential and should not be used for profit. My concerns about these Apps for health and patient data collection are the exposition of people’s frailties, misgiven information, and any other use than helping patients and their families.
Carla,
This was a great A1 and particularly insightful given how readily consumers are to ignore or dismiss privacy breaches. I was particularly shocked by the collection of data about children without parental consent. While I think it is rude that companies purposefully utilized complicated jargon and time the permissions windows to pop up when users are eager and impatient to begin use of an app, at the end of the day, many users are adults making decisions for themselves and are aware of the possible consequences. Children, on the other hand aren’t aware of these dangers, and to create apps that collect information without the informed consent of parents it deplorable. Regarding the use of apps in education, as you said, this is even more complicated since mobile devices and apps are more readily serving education purposes, but if information about the school or the students is unknowingly being collected that puts all the students and faculty information at risk. Do you think this will discourage the use of mobile devices as educational tools? Do you think it is the responsibility of the school to thoroughly research what data is collected by the various apps they desire to use and to circulate permission slips to students’ parents? How else can the school protect student information and privacy when app developers won’t?
I recently learned about the term “surveillance capitalism” and I think it fits onto this topic so well. It’s also part of huge political rifts around 5G at the moment, with countries being uncertain of implementing Chinese based technologies based on their mobile data privacy protections.
At the end of the day, I see a lot of this data collection as “harmless”. It’s not about me as an individual as much as it is about trends that helps marketing. It also helps innovations and improvements. Despite this rationality though, I find myself not liking the idea. I do wish we could opt into or out of data collection (more explicitly too, without needing to dig and find it in some deep dark settings window). There was the presidential candidate in the US last year who was discussing the idea of data cheques, where individuals get paid from the money made off selling their data. That would be an even nicer opt in/opt out process, although there are huge ethical questions that arise then…
This conversation from an educational perspective is even more complex, and sheds a big light on the fact that so often we have to piggyback onto digital tools intended more for advertising than teaching (Youtube being a classic example).
Ah, my head spins. Thanks for choosing this topic and doing such a detailed discussion around it. Super enjoyed it.
J
Hi Carla,
Thank you for shedding light on this significant issue for mobile users. This is a topic that most of us are slightly aware of. All of us have heard about data breaches and tracking of our searches that then predict what sort of advertisements are explicitly targetted for us. However, your presentation demonstrates that all of us need to be aware of what else they are using our data. The delivery of your analysis was clear and very impactful with the variety of statistics that you included. I believe that with the shift from cable tv, to youtube and online streaming, more of the general public are unaware of the dangers of downloading apps without proper research. In my experience, I had received a Samsung alert that a .pdf scanning app on my phone contained malware. Upon further investigation, I discovered that the images that I was scanning to .pdf were not my property any longer. The reason for the app download was for legal documents that required my signature to be scanned back to the bank. I was shocked and scared and immediately trashed the app. I have often wondered what would have happened if I had continued to use that app. Thank you for sharing the insights into education and children’s apps. That information made me realize that just because it is marketed to the vulnerable sector, does not mean it has been vetted by any security groups. Well done, and thank you for sharing.
Hi Carla!
Your video is very thorough and instructive. Like you mentioned in your video, I’m also a light user and don’t pay much attention to what data is being collected on me even though I’m aware of it and mindful of what I use my phone for. I read through the initial set of permission requests when I download and run an app for the first time, but don’t usually think about it after that. I had just been looking into data breaches recently following the announcements from Nintendo about the accounts that were compromised. Considering the lockdown and isolation situations mobile devices are being used even more, and like critical media literacy, privacy should be something we consistently talk to our students about. And for that, we need to be educated about it ourselves, so thank you for sharing your research!