FTC referral to Justice Dept over alleged #COPPA violations and more…such as writing messages users thought were coming from their contacts (179 messages sent 259 million times - allegedly, of course), and other oddities. Complaint against the company and CEO as an individual.
No child’s play here. Disney agrees to $10MM COPPA settlement over mislabeled YouTube video, with a 10 year consent decree to go with it.
Headline correction: apparently it is more than $300 million. While “more than $200 million” is true, it’s also misleading.
Definitely. They could have just said that, but why make things simple? (Although in my head, “I read the instruction manual” conjures images of assembling IKEA furniture and having a few nuts and bolts left over, which is kind of how these laws are being assembled, so I’m partial to that.)
The requirement to “know how” to interpret the findings is … a choice. What’s the standard of knowing how? Are we talking, “I read the instruction manual,” “I just figured it out,” “it’s how we’ve always done it,” or “I built the system?”
Examining how districts are managing student data #privacy & challenges faced by district edtech leaders has been a bit of a passion project for me. H/T to Aaron Hoffman at Useful Research for the data analysis & to the dedicated EdTech leaders who took time to participate and share their insights.
What happens to student #privacy if ED is dismantled or disempowered? The 135+ state student data privacy laws don’t come close to covering the terrain addressed by FERPA and PPRA. @edweek.bsky.social @ariannaprothero.bsky.social @laurainegl.bsky.social www.edweek.org/technology/i...
Looks like it’s time for a CBS, etc. advertiser boycott.
Irony.
Most states also have laws specific to student data #privacy, some w/breach requirements. Mandatory reporting to regulators in NY & CT. Potential jail time in LA. Penalties up to & including debarment from doing biz in the state in IL. @govpritzker.illinois.gov www.usatoday.com/story/news/e...
“Now this is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning.” - Winston Churchill Looking forward to the end of the beginning.
The scope and repercussions from the recent PowerSchool data breach are likely to be unfolding for awhile. In the meantime, you know the drill. Shore up your fundamentals: complex, unique passwords, MFA, data access limitations, network segmentation, training, etc. www.govtech.com/education/k-...
Students arrested and an employee fired over password sharing and misuse. It should never have come to this. Document policies and procedures. Require unique passwords and MFA. Train better (and don’t only train on phishing). Then train again. #privacy
Very happy to see Rebecca Torchia at EdTech Magazine covering this important program that gives state education agencies insights into district student #privacy practices and the resources to help districts improve and so glad to be a part of it! #privacy #edtech @cosnweb.bsky.social
For consumers - in or out of a business context - I usually just go with, “sometimes LLMs just make stuff up.” The how or why is often less important to the user than the what.
And, while you’re at it, perhaps also allow school districts to use FCC ERate internet funding to secure that internet too…
So much wrong here, including, “…this was not an old device, it was fairly recent, expensive, and still being sold.” Seems to be just predatory at that point.
Enjoyed chatting with Kirsten Adair with Indiana Public Broadcasting Stations about this impactful student data #privacy program.
“We started a business without a business model” is a flaw I actually hear often, but most don’t come with the risk of having to support something as big as this! However, I too, am hopeful that this place will figure it out better than most and will, at the very least, be thoughtful about it.
CA Confidentiality of Medical Info and CA Customer Records Act have entered the student #privacy chat. One to watch, esp for those working w/ district SEL programs, IEPs,
etc. And remember:
notification 5 months after a breach (w/out good reason) is a VERY expensive, self-inflicted wound. #edtech
I have all the feels on that one. Oof… Also, there is really no such thing as “commercially reasonable age verification” in privacy.
The full story of how this all unfolded is worth a read! Check out Ben Chapman’s reporting at @the74.bsky.social - he’s been all over this since June - and writing there from Mark Keierleber. #edtech
Yes. And regardless, the collection and processing needs to be legal to start with. Which typically means you’re not keeping it longer than needed to provide the service and with students, not using it for any other purpose (at least in US K12). Thus, it’s long gone before the student gets older!
Interesting! Don’t know if voice changes are such that a voice of a child couldn’t be connected to the same child as an adult. However, if collected, used, and retained lawfully today, it means the voice will have been deleted long before anyone has a chance to find out! (And 100% to no cloning!)
A very, very cautionary tale, and good reminder for districts: your DPA with your ed tech provider is not the same as due diligence - trust but verify, and investor excitement does not mean it’s a good product. It means someone *thinks* they can make money. #privacy #edtech @the74.bsky.social
This lawsuit seems messy. Plaintiffs seem to ignore #FERPA & cite basic analytics and adaptive learning as some of the nefarious doings with data. Defendant's tilting at #COPPA is...unique. TBD if it prevails on wiretapping or other, but one to watch. #privacy #edtech @annamerod.bsky.social
Thank you @wearelakotatech.bsky.social for sharing!
True, but the odds would have been much better if they had introduced a well-crafted bill in 2022.
Unfortunately, I believe poor drafting leading to opposition from big tech + ACLU and other consumer advocates left it doomed from the start. The edits helped some, but by then the damage (and the delays) had been done. May have passed swiftly if better done from the start.
