Data Abuses At Local Grammar Schools?
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Data Abuses At Local Grammar Schools?
I don't have any information on how individual Essex grammar schools handle pupil data, but if our local comps are any indication schools have very little respect for pupil data and often sell it to numerous commercial entities (this is done subtly via giving these companies access to track every pupil's detailed academic progress or behaviour records or eating habits without any of the data being anonymised. At least one school even has pupils using a common password to access multiple sites - because pupils can't be expected to remember 3-4 passwords! - which means any of those third parties can impersonate the pupil to log in to any other third party's site, the pupil's emails or indeed the school portal. Every commercial entity has access to every pupil's password! I kid you not.)
Official statements from schools of course claim the highest standards and claim strict adherence to data protection laws.
1. Is anyone with a child at WHSG, SHSG or CCHS willing to list what external third party sites their children need to log into as part of their school life - sites where they do homework, take tests, record house points ... or whatever?
2. Any of those three schools using biometric data - thumb impressions iris scans etc., - for access to any facilities? Are pupils given the legally required option of not participating in biometrics?
3. Do you know if any of the schools are willing to make any exceptions to any third party tracking a pupil's data e.g. by exempting the pupil from logging into that third party site?
I appreciate that people are willing to make numerous sacrifices to get their children into a grammar school and may be willing to accept data abuses... or don't see them as data abuses. As a national privacy campaigner I'm appalled at what happens in the schools I do know and want to make sure I put my DD in a school that respects her data and respects it to an extent that meets with the law and my satisfaction. (She has the alternatives of education outside the UK or home ed)
Thanks in advance.
Official statements from schools of course claim the highest standards and claim strict adherence to data protection laws.
1. Is anyone with a child at WHSG, SHSG or CCHS willing to list what external third party sites their children need to log into as part of their school life - sites where they do homework, take tests, record house points ... or whatever?
2. Any of those three schools using biometric data - thumb impressions iris scans etc., - for access to any facilities? Are pupils given the legally required option of not participating in biometrics?
3. Do you know if any of the schools are willing to make any exceptions to any third party tracking a pupil's data e.g. by exempting the pupil from logging into that third party site?
I appreciate that people are willing to make numerous sacrifices to get their children into a grammar school and may be willing to accept data abuses... or don't see them as data abuses. As a national privacy campaigner I'm appalled at what happens in the schools I do know and want to make sure I put my DD in a school that respects her data and respects it to an extent that meets with the law and my satisfaction. (She has the alternatives of education outside the UK or home ed)
Thanks in advance.
