I came away from the ETMOOC session Who Owns Your Education Data? (and Why Does it Matter?) hosted by Audrey Watters informed and realizing I need to sharpen this area of my digital literacy skills.

Being a principal I am constantly bombarded by standardized testing that aims to collect data.  I question the validity of many of these assessment methods. I am also hesitant to administer them because I am not sure where or who will be using this student or school data.  However, I haven’t given much thought to how technology changes the notion of data ownership.

Luckily at our school students haven’t “signed up” or shared any personal information online yet.  So I don’t believe we have been caught not knowing who owns the content or had privacy issues.  Although we are moving to more personalized learning for our students that includes utilizing technology.  We will definitely be more cognizant of the potential risks before allowing our students to openly navigate online.

On a personal note I have been naive to much of the information she discussed.  I had little idea or even care to know if my online data was being collected, where it is being stored or if it is being shared without my knowledge.  I have joined countless websites, accepted many Terms of Service agreements without even reading them. I think they are so long so users won’t take the time to look. This is scary because it implies developers are trying to hide something.

So I went online and started looking up the Terms of Service for a few websites/apps that I use the most.  I started with Facebook.  I clipped this image from their Terms of Service.

A few things I noticed.  First, this is obviously written by a lawyer.  I don’t really understand the language so I wonder how a 13 year teenager would.  Second, this clause outlines the importance of privacy settings.  Facebook gives the user the right to protect your online property but if you don’t they can do whatever they want with it.  I wonder how many users don’t worry about privacy? I know I didn’t for a number of years before changing my settings.  Does that mean all the information before then has been shared and I don’t have control over anymore?  Needless to say, you may want to take the time to read over this lengthy document.  The part I shared is just a small piece of a much larger agreement.

I also explored YouTube.  I only made it to one 1.B before I was found something interesting.  Basically YouTube is stating that they can change or “modify” the agreement at any time. It doesn’t say that they will inform users when this happens, rather it seems to put the responsibility on the account user to check the website periodically.  This is scary because it give YouTube the right to change the agreement at any point without letting anybody know.

Finally, I came away from this session more educated about the potential implications regarding student education data, as well as being mindful about my personal online activity.  I guess it is time to pay more attention to the small print.