The vast majority of technology used in distance education during the pandemic in 49 countries, including Brazil, allows companies to collect information on children and adolescents, a non-governmental organization (NGO) warned on Tuesday.
According to a report, Human Rights Watch (HRW) analyzed, between March and August 2021, 163 distance education programsrecommended by governments around the world, and found that 89% put it at risk the human rights of students.
The list includes six programs recommended by the Ministry of Education of the Brazilian state of São Paulo and with millions of users, according to HRW.
The report pointed out that many of the programs allow the collection of information on children and adolescents, including their identity, location, family and friends, behavior during class, and type of device use.
The vast majority of programs directly send or give access to personal data of children and adolescents to other entities, namely companies that use this information to produce personalized advertisements, including the social network Facebook, HRW stressed.
Children, parents and teachers knew practically nothing about the data monitoring practices we discovered in children’s online classrooms,” said Hye Jung Han.
“By understanding how these distance learning tools address their children’s privacy, people can more effectively demand protections for children online,” added HRW Child Rights and Technology Researcher.
In addition to failing to verify that the distance learning technology they recommended during the pandemic was safe, 39 governments themselves have created programs that put children’s personal data at risk, according to the report.
This was the case of the São Paulo Education Media Center and Estude em Casa, developed by the Brazilian state of Minas Gerais.
HRW stressed that most of the programs or did not allow students to refuse to share their data or monitored the information secretly, without the knowledge or consent of the child or family.
Children are not products,” said Hye Jung Han. “Governments must adopt and enforce modern child data protection laws to prevent surveillance of children by actors who are not in the best interests of the public. children,” he added.
Source: Observadora
