Sophia Cope and Gennie Gebhart write:
With a new school year underway, concerns about student privacy are at the forefront of parents’ and students’ minds. The Student Privacy Pledge, which recently topped 300 signatories and reached its two-year launch anniversary, is at the center of discussions about how to make sure tech and education companies protect students and their information. A voluntary effort led by the Future of Privacy Forum and the Software and Information Industry Association (SIAA), the Pledge holds the edtech companies who sign it to a set of commitments intended to protect student privacy.
But the Student Privacy Pledge as it stands is flawed. While we praise the Pledge’s effort to create industry norms around privacy, its loopholes prevent it from actually protecting student data.
All in the fine print
The real problems with the Student Privacy Pledge are not in its 12 large, bold commitment statements—which we generally like—but in the fine-print definitions under them.
Read more on EFF.