Child enrolled in mental health application without parental consent
A parent discovered that a school had automatically enrolled their child in a mental health application before notifying the family. According to the parent, the child’s personal information had already been shared with a technology provider for research and development purposes. The consequence was unauthorized disclosure of the child’s data. This is a personal interview. […]
Class Action Lawsuit Against Curriculum Associates Over Unauthorized i-Ready Data Collection
A class action lawsuit was filed on behalf of K-12 students, including a minor student plaintiff, alleging that Curriculum Associates generated, collected, used, and shared their personal information without consent through its i-Ready products. The complaint claims these practices violated federal and state privacy laws, including the Federal Wiretap Act, the California Invasion of Privacy […]
Data Privacy Lawsuit Filed Against Educational Software Provider on Behalf of K-12 Students
K-12 students filed a class-action lawsuit against educational software provider Renaissance Learning, Inc. The lawsuit alleges that the company’s platforms, including Star Assessments and Nearpod, generated, collected, used, and shared students’ personal and behavioral data without consent. This unauthorized collection and tracking allegedly violated federal and state wiretapping and privacy laws, resulting in an unlawful […]
Safeguarding records disclosed to children in classroom environment
Sensitive personal and special-category safeguarding information relating to four individuals including three children was disclosed in a classroom environment through school systems. Children were exposed to confidential information not intended for them resulting in a personal data breach.
Secondary School Student Receives Detention Over Mandatory Use of Reading App
A male secondary school student in the United Kingdom received a school detention for failing to complete his homework through a mandatory reading application. The school required all reading to be logged through the software, which strictly limits book selection, controls reading speed, and requires completing AI-generated quizzes. The student ultimately chose to accept recurring […]
Students subjected to facial recognition processing without valid consent
A high school in the United Kingdom introduced facial recognition technology for student catering services. Students were processed under an opt-out consent model and no DPIA was completed before deployment. The ICO found that students were deprived of the ability to properly exercise their rights and freedoms in relation to the processing between March and […]
Primary School Pupils Exposed to Explicit Content on School-Issued Laptops
A primary school student in Scotland was left traumatized after being exposed to explicit content on a school-issued laptop. The exposure occurred when classmates searched for a medical term on their Chromebooks, bypassing the school’s safety filtering system while connected to the school Wi-Fi. The child’s parent reported that multiple children were exposed to the […]
Private female maths tutor who taught a teenage boy online jailed for sexual abuse after arranging in-person meetings
A female private maths tutor tutored a teenage boy online and then arranged to meet him at her home, where she had sexual contact with him while aware he was under the age of consent. The boy’s mother found inappropriate WhatsApp messages on his phone in May 2023. The tutor pleaded guilty and was jailed […]
India – Students using government educational platforms were denied meaningful ability to opt out of surveillance
Some Indian state education ministries set quotas for government teachers to get a minimum number of students to download Diksha, the national education app; a Times of India report cited by HRW says Uttar Pradesh told each government teacher to convince 10 students to download it. HRW concluded that in these countries, children could not […]
Zambian students using E-Learning Portal had educational data shared with commercial providers
e-Learning Portal, a Zambian Ministry of General Education website offering core-subject courses for grades 7 to 12 for a fee, was detected by HRW sending its students’ personal data to PushEngage, a company that markets push notification services as a way to increase revenue from each visitor, and to Tawk.to, a live chat service whose […]