NYT: Privacy Concerns For ClassDojo, Other Tracking Apps For Schoolchildren 66
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."
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."
Re:LOL hypocrites. (Score:5, Insightful)
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It's not "think of the children." It's "think of these people's privacy." Just because the issue happens to impact children does not mean that there isn't a legitimate problem, you ignorant fool.
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these types of things.. (Score:1)
well all k12 targeted "apps" and services *NEED* to have option to be completely SELF HOSTED by the school or district with NO DATA LEAKAGE to the vendor or other 3rd party. GOOGLE and APPLE, i'm talking to YOU TOO.
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And politicians who don't have the balls to push for prosecution here should think hard. If all the confidential data from their own school years had been leaked during their campaigning, would they have been in office?
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but it won't. for the people that matter, the data will be massaged to be almost immaculate [almost because if it was perfect everyone would know it was a total fiction]. for everyone else, it will be part of their police record.
Disappointing article (Score:5, Interesting)
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 [politico.com] highlighted earlier on Slashdot [slashdot.org]. Also interesting to note is how some companies are pledging [politico.com] 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 [wsj.com].
Oh frabjous day! (Score:5, Funny)
I envision a brave new world, where teachers can determine who is and who isn't going to be a success, and we can become an even better society
Teachers will know who is or is not worth working with - not much differnet than before
But now, Law enforcement will be able to access this valuable information so that they will be able to study, and keep an eye on children likely to be n'er do wells.
Socially motivated groups will be able to profile and experiment. If you thought the self esteem movement was great, we might be able to successfully ingrain all male children to stop being misogynists.
But most important of all, we'll be able to monetize this information for profit, as the merchandizers get access to this vital marketing information.
Re: Oh frabjous day! (Score:1)
They already do. Through fast tracking, advanced classes, and if not those, simply grades. If they don't like a student, they fail him early on and it ruins his motivation.
Now who do you think teachers will favor? Cute little Tina with her blonde hair and rich parents or little Latoya from the ghetto who just wants a place to be safe fr her abusive mother and absent father?
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I envision a brave new world, where teachers can determine who is and who isn't going to be a success, and we can become an even better society
You're being insufficiently imaginative. Try envisioning a world where when you apply for a job their hiring expert system reviews your entire school record. Remember that time you got in trouble in 2nd grade or your below average number of award badges, yeah that's going to cost you.
Re:most of that info used to be tracked on paper (Score:5, Informative)
Yes it is because the paper copy isn't shared with God+his dog unlike this application does. Also, the paper copy is destroyed once the student passes that year unlike this application which stores it forever.
So to answer you directly, some things are better off only in paper if even there.
Re:most of that info used to be tracked on paper (Score:5, Interesting)
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?
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However, data that is private can be stolen
Only if the device it's stored on is stolen. Someone sending the data around can violate people's privacy; that doesn't mean the data was stolen.
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Nothing is taken, but privacy is violated. This obviously does not apply to, say, a copyrighted game, since that information is not private (as in privacy). There's an obvious difference.
Oh, wait... you mean it can harm them in other ways, like loss of market for the product
There is no loss in such a case, as you can't lose something you never had and was never yours (you can't claim to own other people's purchasing decisions) to begin with. These children had privacy.
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If their entire business model is based on hosting the data themselves, providing it as a (probably subscription) service, then no it's not trivial to rectify. Maybe trivial technically, but since when have technical problems been the hardest part of life? Besides, your average school district's IT budget means that it's not even easy to host themselves if they wanted to and had the code. Who are you going to pay to keep the server up and running etc?
A big draw of a service like this is that it just work
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Sure, that's a fine solution, just don't claim that providing the benefits of the service while eliminating the data-sharing is trivial.
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Interesting. One can only hope the teachers will take it well if they decline.
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In what jurisdiction is it common, or even allowed, that a child's teacher (and his or her opinions about how the child performs when he's living with mom vs. dad) becomes a party to a parental custody hearing? It sounds to me like this information is being used waaaaay "off-label."
In just about any jurisdiction, custody battles often get vicious, with both parties using whatever information they can to discredit the other. Many witnesses may be called, some of whom may have very limited knowledge of the parties concerned. It is not surprising that teachers, which have a great deal of knowledge of student behavior and emotional state will have relevant things to say in such hearings.
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Are you saying you don't think it should be allowed? Collectively, these teachers spend more time with the kids than the parents do. As long as the judge can deal with the context appropriately, it's very important data.
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Are you saying you don't think it should be allowed? Collectively, these teachers spend more time with the kids than the parents do. As long as the judge can deal with the context appropriately, it's very important data.
Important enough that it may be sold to the highest bidder 30 years later when the kid runs for president?
The main problem here is retention, and who possesses the data.
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Oh, no arguments there.
Pavlovian classroom? (Score:2)
The quote "I like it because you get rewarded for your good behavior — like a dog does when it gets a treat" should be plenty to flag a really archaic approach to school that's going to work for some kids and poison the rest. The article mentions the criticism for the underlying theory as well. Teachers should be connecting with their kids. What's next? Food pellets for good behavior? Arf! Johnny's a good boy.
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I know it may sound a bit crass the way it's worded, but positive and negative reinforcement are extremely powerful motivation methods for both animals and people.
Reward charts are a long time proven method to keep kids motivated without using punishment. Punishment is also very useful, and like positive methods must be tailored for the recipient. Not all people respond the same to positive things, and punishment (or fear of it) is not always beneficially motivational.
Things like ClassDojo are a convenient
Obedience is now a virtue? (Score:2)
Seems things are really going down the drain. Citizens are getting morphed into slaves, essentially.
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Come on, use a little context. These are third graders. This isn't obedience like "march with your right arm up", this is behaving basic rules like "don't run in class, don't talk over the teacher, put your phone away, turn in your work on time". Intelligently questioning authority is a real virtue, blind disobedience is not. We live in a country where high schoolers can barely find their own country on a map. Obeying instructions in class is something we could use more of.
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Which is true
The real implications of this system, is that while on an old paper, or mabey spreadsheet, or localzed version, the only people who had accesss to it where the teachers, perhaps shared with school administration in extreme cases. Teachers had no reason to save such performance data longer than it was useful, i.e. a school year.
Now, you have a perminant record of how
COPPA (Score:2)
data use and bias (Score:1)