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Download AudioA data privacy expert says the Education Ministry needs to ensure software used in schools doesn’t breach the Privacy Act.
In a paper for the Privacy Foundation, Victoria University of Wellington law lecturer Marcin Betkier says schools have neither the power nor the expertise to negotiate with software providers, and simply accept the terms and conditions offered.
There are no checks as to whether information collected across children’s software and devices could be used for commercial purposes or other sorts of harm.
“Children are vulnerable because of different factors, emotionally, physically, and they are susceptible to different sorts of manipulation, that software can be used against them and they don’t understand the commercial aspects of services. That should somehow be covered by the government,” he says.
Dr Betkier says educational software should contain privacy safeguards by design.
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