With the increasing digitization of various aspects of society and the exponential increase in the amount of “out of print” data that most of us produce, data protection has become an important issue of our time.
First, a quick reminder of the amount of data we produce and the companies like Google and Facebook and various institutions we interact with (like schools, hospitals, and government departments) have about us.
- Google, through our smartphones, laptops, and other Internet-connected devices, has complete records of all searches we make, including pictures and videos, even if we later delete those searches. If you set “location” on our smartphones, you will know all the places we have been.
- And with other applications like Google Calendar you can know all the appointments that we have planned and whether we are attending or not. Those who use Gmail, Google has all of the messages sent or received and all of our contacts.
- When we have “special customers” applications, retail companies (such as supermarket chains) have a record of everything we bought from them, in which store / branch and when young people probably produce even more data because they all use a lot of social media during their training in addition to the data on their training, i.e. all their courses and grades that are currently digitally recorded, as well as the digitally submitted homework or tests.
The problem is that most people don’t know how much data different websites and institutions have and what they do with it. Much of the data is used for profiling and advertising purposes – what you’re looking for, what you buy, and where you go often can be used to target you with advertising and other purposes.
More generally, privacy should be viewed as a personal right, such as freedom of belief (religious, political), freedom of expression, etc. No company or institution should have the right to access your contact list or location, and movements for every hour and every day for the past 10 years.
When WhatsApp announced earlier this year through its owner Facebook that it was changing its privacy policy to allow the use of user metadata, many of us disagreed and decided to stop using the application, and contact persons for this decision answered many, saying they have nothing to hide. The answer is, neither do us, but in principle we do not accept that a company uses our data without consent; an opt-out should always be allowed.
Fortunately, due to the uproar, WhatsApp has backed out and allowed users to consent or disagree with the use of their data, so people can continue to use the application but without consenting to the data being released. In the education sector, there are similar and possibly more critical questions related to data protection.
As mentioned earlier, educational institutions have important data about students, including grades and health records. Unfortunately, such data is seldom completely safe, as hackers recently demonstrated through so-called “zoom bombing” and other security breaches. In addition, the increased use of digital tools during the pandemic, including exams and online monitoring, has not only increased the amount of sensitive student data that is now in place, but that data is also managed by third parties, particularly testing companies online monitoring. How this data is stored and managed is rarely asked, let alone answered satisfactorily.
Two weeks ago, Inside Higher Ed, a respected and widely read online higher education news center, published 2,286 results of a poll it recently conducted with College Pulse (a startup specializing in student opinion). Students from 120 colleges and universities found that the majority of students don’t even think their institution has a privacy policy, and only 12 percent of them have looked up and read it on their website.
Students should be aware that universities in general collect data (using cookies, forms, logs, email backups) about many things, including all websites accessed through the university internet, everyone information entered on a form, any document uploaded or downloaded, any email sent or received through the university’s email system, and more.
Many students were surprised at how much personal data is collected and stored. In many cases, they were not given the option to log out. This should be essential in any case, be it via Facebook, WhatsApp, Company X or University Y.
Data protection has emerged as a question of freedom and personal rights (as a citizen, consumer). In fact, data is now widely used both as a trading currency and for social and political information and records. In 2016, the EU passed the General Data Protection Regulation, which gives citizens the rights to how their data can or cannot be used by governments and businesses.
In the US, regulations are being discussed specifically for student data, and companies are now weighing the pros and cons of collecting data and annoying customers in the process, rather than giving in and pleasing, and thereby attracting more customers. As the 21st century becomes increasingly digital, data protection must be added to the list of inalienable human rights.
