Opinion/Stern: How remote learning gets an ’F’ in protecting student privacy
Hannah Stern is the policy associate at the ACLU of Rhode Island.
When COVID-19 forced school closures across the state in March, school districts quickly turned to remote learning to finish the school year. Relying on school-loaned laptops and similar devices, students and their families found themselves — and continue to find themselves — grappling with numerous technical, logistical and pedagogical issues. However, one additional concern about this widespread educational tool has been largely overlooked: these devices have not only invited the teacher into the home, they have welcomed Big Brother as well.
A survey that the ACLU of Rhode Island conducted earlier this year showed that two-thirds of the state’s school districts have policies that explicitly advise students they have no expectation of privacy of any kind in their use of these school-loaned devices.
Through these policies, many school administrators reserve the right to secretly activate the camera or microphone on a student’s computer at any time. This is not a mere hypothetical concern. As a result of a lawsuit filed by a public school student in Pennsylvania some years ago, it was discovered that his school district had taken tens of thousands of photographs of students through their school-loaned laptops, including screenshots of this student sleeping in bed at night.
These privacy-waiving policies also mean that most school districts maintain the right to monitor all files and content, including web history, that are on the computer while it is being used at home. For example, some districts explicitly allow the devices to be used for personal purposes.
Imagine that every Google search by a child or every use of the computer by a family member to look up bank statements, seek unemployment benefits or make medical appointments could be seen by school officials. This intrusion is particularly disconcerting for lower-income students whose families may not have their own personal computer. Unlike their wealthier counterparts, they must think twice about any search they conduct or any website they visit in case it’s misinterpreted.
While the ACLU has encouraged all school districts to respect the privacy rights of students and families, not enough have done so. In fact, our survey earlier this year disclosed only one school district — Newport — had implemented a comprehensive policy that we felt adequately protected students’ privacy. Other districts offered partial protections, and many provided none.
As a result, students are left with an arbitrary patchwork of protections dependent on where they live. Parents concerned about privacy should be clamoring for school district policies that protect that privacy, and there is a clear need for the General Assembly to additionally act to ensure uniform and consistent standards that preserve confidentiality in the home.
Those standards should ban a school’s ability to access the device’s camera or microphone while the student is learning remotely except during live teaching activities and with full consent and knowledge of the student and family. Similarly, the ability to access data remotely on a school-loaned device should be limited to very specific education-related circumstances.
School-loaned computers have become a critical resource by allowing students to continue with their education in the midst of a global pandemic. Yet, it is extremely concerning that with all public school students facing the necessity of engaging remotely in at least some aspect of their education for the foreseeable future, their privacy, and that of their families, has not been given the basic consideration that it deserves.
It is critical that appropriate privacy protections be swiftly adopted by school districts and the legislature. Remote learning gives students and families enough hassles to contend with. The fear that their school district may be spying on them should not be added to that list.