Err, Apps You Used for School During Lockdown May Have Been Tracking Your Data

That's a Big Brother type vibe 👁️

How good was remote learning? Waking up late, making food during English, sitting on your bed for Maths, being alone in the privacy of your own space…

Wait, scratch that last part. Turns out things may not have been as private as you thought.

A global study by the Human Rights Watch (HRW) revealed more than four million Australia school students were at risk of “unprecedented tracking and surveillance” during remote learning.

They analysed 164 educational apps and websites used in 49 countries. Codes were tested and HRW were able to track where students' data was being funnelled to.

Let’s take a step back for a sec. There are literal international privacy obligations these companies must abide by. But it has now been alleged that a number of them did not meet these promises.

Instead, some educational products requested access to students’ contacts and locations and monitored their keystrokes. The data was sent to nearly 200 ad-technology companies. Holy moly.

What apps may have tracked your data?

The HRW found that the Adobe Connect app, used by many Australian schools for videoconferencing and screen sharing, had a history of concerning activity.

The application could access students’ cameras and microphones, and even phone numbers.

This personal data would then be used for ‘behavioural advertising’, aka that phenomenon where you Google a clothing shop one time and then start seeing it absolutely everywhere.

The HRW also found that the educational spin-off of Minecraft, called Minecraft: Education Edition, breached its own privacy policy.

It had promised not to collect or use children’s personal data for non-educational purposes. But, lo and behold, a code was found in the app which made it possible to track children’s precise locations and times they were at those locations. This could be shared to Google, Twitter and Facebook.

And that’s all just the tip of the iceberg.

What does this mean for students?

When Year 11 and 12 Sydney students were confronted by The ABC with these findings, they expressed some concern.

Year 12 student Liam told The ABC, “when you’re at school, you have the right to feel protected and safe…so to have this going on, you don’t expect it.”

Liam also noticed an increase in targeted advertisements after the period of remote learning.

“It’s pretty nerve-racking, knowing that sometimes you’re just going to be speaking about something and that it’s then being advertised to you later. And I think it’s definitely going to become a big, big issue in the future,” he said.

What can students do to protect their data?

There are some precautions you can take without completely eliminating all apps from your daily use.

The HRW will release its full raw data and analysis globally on 8 June.