Digital Smarts - Facebook Goes to School

Facebook has teamed with a California charter school to develop software that individualizes education and is being offered to schools for free. The project echoes CEO Mark Zuckerberg's philanthropic focus on education. While not part of the Facebook social network, the software allows students to work with teachers to create tailored lessons and projects. Teachers can also administer individualized quizzes that the software can grade and track. Facebook says that it is adhering to the student privacy practices recommended by the federal government, and that Facebook could not and would not use student data for its other businesses. Critics are skeptical of such commitments. “Facebook does not have the greatest reputation when it comes to privacy,” said Leonie Haimson, executive director of Class Size Matters, a nonprofit group that has criticized technology companies, contending that they may violate student privacy.