Privacy

Keeping up with a constant stream of social media notifications on their phones is one of the main drivers of stress among students, reports The Associated Press. Some schools are taking steps to help reduce students' stress and anxiety, such as  engaging students in mindfulness activities, hiring outside firms to scan social media for signs that students might need additional support, and encouraging “unplugging” from devices. One teacher says he has seen a profound shift toward constant self-evaluation in the past 30 years that he’s been teaching, and he associates that with social media. He sees students constantly checking their Instagram, SnapChat, and even school grade portals – all outside forces students have never before had to manage.

Are you curious at all about what happens to the data collected about your children at school? Leadership coach Andrew Knips says in a recent article of Edutopia online that two things schools should factor in is students' culture and identity. In his blog post, he shares six strategies to help support more equitable data analysis, including steps schools should take to address implicit bias not only about culture and identity, but gender and disabilities as well. This is a very interesting take on how to use data to make our schools more equitable.

According to Adweek, advertisers will be putting more than $1 billion in the global market for child-centric ads. Privacy concerns have been voiced because of the data collected on the youngest users, even with laws on the books against such collection. Video-on-demand platforms like YouTube Kids and social media are big draws for media buyers targeting digitally-savvy children.

What is YouTube doing about the recently revealed research that found that YouTube’s algorithms could potentially be jeopardizing the safety of children? To avoid limiting the volume of content uploaded to YouTube (which would happen if every video was manually reviewed), they’re opting instead to tighten parental controls on YouTube Kids—the only place under-13-year-olds are ever supposed to be. Their solution is to hand parents the reins, letting them go so far as disabling search and only displaying videos they’ve personally approved, which essentially means is all they have done is put the onus back on parents to protect the postings of their children.

This recent research should serve as a reminder to parents that there is the option to privately share videos on YouTube, to watch carefully what you let your children post online (if you let them post at all), and to restrict what you post to things that you would not mind the whole world viewing. This new development is also sure to add to the pressure on Silicon Valley by lawmakers in Washington to pay more attention to privacy concerns.

Should you cover your webcam with a piece of tape? Some say it is a sign of paranoia, but many cybersecurity experts say it couldn’t hurt (Mark Zuckerberg of Facebook actually puts a piece of tape on his webcam, so take that for what you will!). There are plenty of valid reasons to take this precaution. It is not unfathomable that one day a hacker might find some way to hijack your front-facing cameras and watch your children play online games, do their homework, or worse.

If you decide to cover the lens, tape is not your only option. There are commercial alternatives, such as this five-pack of webcam covers. They look a littler nicer than a piece of tape and are easy to use: line up the hole with your camera lens, and when you want to hide the camera, the cover slides right over it; when you want to use the camera, just slide the cover open This is a good safety measure to make your children aware of as well.

The Colorado Supreme Court is considering whether a teenager's tweets are considered free speech. The case stems from tweets sent between two students, in different states that did not know each other, that included threats of violence in the aftermath of the shooting that happened at Arapahoe High School in 2013. One of the students was arrested for harassment, but his conviction was overturned. Traditionally, for something to qualify as a true threat, there is usually a face-to-face confrontation where the harm would potentially be imminent. Experts now say they believe the courts might eventually need to decide whether a person's fear of harm is enough to constitute a true threat.

According to Gizmodo, Google, the world’s foremost collector of private information, has unveiled a set of tools that will give users more control over their data and make it more difficult for others to track their online activities. Google users will be allowed to navigate in "incognito mode," delete web and app activity history automatically after three months or 18 months, and find and delete information they have shared with the company. Critics called these improvements “marginal” and “privacy theater.” Marc Rotenberg, president of the Electronic Privacy Information Center, also found the privacy measures lacking. "Unless the Federal Trade Commission is prepared to bring enforcement actions against companies, these promises to protect privacy matter very little," he said.