We have a nation of children at risk. I'm not talking about traditional crimes, I'm talking about our childrens’ data.
Marketplace by American Public Media on NPR recently produced a story that should set off alarm bells; it documents how much data is being gathered about your children.
Some of the highlights:
- Parents don't always know what information is being collected, where it’s going, or how it's being used.
- The data collection begins even before she/he steps into the school.
- Location information is just one small part of a child’s data file.
- In the classroom, teachers gather data on routine things like attendance, tardiness, test scores and grades.
- In most states, the data are fed into a giant database.
- Sales of educational technology software for kids in kindergarten through high school reached nearly $8 billion last year, according to the Software and Information Industry Association.
- One of the biggest players is the field is Knewton. It analyzes student data that it collects by keeping track of nearly every click and keystroke your child makes during digital lessons.
- Knewton claims to gather millions of data points on millions of children each day.
“We live in a 24/7 data mining universe today,” says Jim Steyer, CEO of Common Sense Media. “And I think most of us parents and teachers and kids don't realize how much of our data is out there and used by other people.”
Steyer is also a parent. He says what worries him most is that “information that's very personal to me and my family, for example my kids disciplinary record or health record or something like that, is made available to somebody who it's no business to have that.”
Read more at:
http://www.marketplace.org/topics/education/learningcurve/day-life-data-mined-kid
