Edtech companies are breaking UK data laws, leaving children’s data vulnerable to commercial exploitation, privacy campaigners claim, as free remote learning software that was adopted by schools in the pandemic comes under scrutiny.
An investigation by children’s digital rights charity 5Rights is being presented to the Information Commissioner’s Office and the Department for Education on Wednesday, highlighting the policies of popular edtech products Google Classroom and ClassDojo.
The research conducted an experiment tracking how school children interacted with Google Classroom, revealing how data was tracked by third parties and Google when the user clicks on external links. This data can be used to infer preferences and serve personalised advertising.