Abstract

In an effort to slow the spread of the highly infectious disease coronavirus (COVID-19), school districts around the world closed school buildings, thrusting educators into emergency remote teaching. Although many vendors were quick to release tutorial guides and free trials for their online learning resources, the growing concern over student data protection intensified. A lack of transparency or disregard for privacy in the privacy policies of many apps and websites used by students may allow third parties to generate detailed profiles of students to be used for behavioral advertising, which could cause unforeseen consequences. This article highlights existing federal laws that aim to protect student data, explains the importance of vetting apps and websites used by students, offers guidance to assist schools with the vetting process, and concludes with resources to teach about digital citizenship, including lessons in which students learn how to protect their own data.

摘要

为了减缓高度感染性冠状病毒（COVID-19）的传播，世界各地的学区关闭了学校建筑，迫使教育工作者进行紧急远程教学。尽管许多供应商很快就为其在线学习资源发布了教程指南和免费试用版，但对学生数据保护的关注却日益加剧。学生使用的许多应用和网站的隐私政策中缺乏透明度或不重视隐私，可能会导致第三方生成用于行为广告的详细学生资料，这可能会导致无法预料的后果。本文重点介绍了旨在保护学生数据的现行联邦法律，解释了审核学生使用的应用和网站的重要性，提供了指导学校协助审核过程的指南，