FTC to Crack Down on Educational Software Engaging in Data Surveillance
The US Federal Trade Commission is vowing to go after educational tech companies guilty of collecting too much data on children.
According to the FTC, there’s growing concern that online education providers are excessively harvesting data on children. The other worry is that the data collection can be mandatory, giving the child and their parents little choice but to comply.
In response, the FTC on Thursday announced(Opens in a new window) it’ll crack down on any educational company found needlessly collecting data on child users.
“Students must be able to do their schoolwork without surveillance by companies looking to harvest their data to pad their bottom line," says FTC Bureau of Consumer Protection Director Samuel Levine. “Parents should not have to choose between their children’s privacy and their participation in the digital classroom.”
The FTC made the announcement as virtual learning has grown in popularity after the COVID-19 pandemic forced children across the country to attend school online. The US regulator didn’t name any education technology firms by name, but it’s worried the sector is ripe for abuse.
“Parents and schools...are forced to navigate an industry that is dominated by the commercial surveillance business model,” the FTC says. “These services have the capacity to collect a trove of personal information and there are serious concerns that this data may be used to build profiles of kids.”
To rein in potential abuse, the FTC published(Opens in a new window) a policy statement on the kinds of illegal data collection practices it will scrutinize, including collecting more information from the child than what’s reasonably needed, using the data for commercial purposes, retaining the information
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