OTAN News

Reviewing the Privacy Ratings for Edtech Products

Image by Biljana Jovanovic from Pixabay

When we consider which edtech products to use in our classrooms with our students, we think about how effective the tools are and how easy they will be to use. But how often are we considering the implications of data collection by the tools and whether the entities that created the tools are keeping our personal data safe?

For many years, Common Sense Education has been rating edtech products on how well they have enhanced student learning and teacher instruction, but the organization has decided to add a new privacy rating to help teachers and administrators determine how well the creators of edtech products are securing the data that their products collect. Common Sense Education has set up a simple three-tiered rating system – Pass, Warning, and Fail – that is now a part of the edtech product profile. Significantly, if the edtech product gets a Fail warning, the rest of the profile will not be visible, highlighting the critical nature of securing student data and proclaiming that data concerns are more important than the value that the edtech tool provides.

When you dig down into the privacy rating on a tech tool profile, you can see that the rating is a combination of different data points and how well the tool does regarding each point. Some of the issues include:

• What data does it collect and what data does it share?

• How does it secure the data?

• What rights do I have to the data?

• Is the data sold?

• Are there advertisements or tracking?

If you are not entirely familiar with data security and privacy issues, take some time to review the extensive rating system created by Common Sense Education to gain a better understanding of what to consider, even at a basic level, when considering a tech tool that will collect and utilize student and teacher data in some way.

If you would like more information about privacy issues, please contact OTAN at 916-228-2580 or support@otan.us to schedule a training on data privacy with us!

Article: Check Out the Privacy Ratings for Hundreds of Popular Classroom Tools from Common Sense Education