The onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 shuttered daycare centers, shifted schools to virtual settings, and fueled the rapid growth of children’s applications and educational technology (“ed-tech”) to facilitate the shelter-in-place childcare and remote learning paradigms. The federal Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) and Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA), as well as numerous state laws protect children’s and students’ privacy when using these platforms. In 2021, increased scrutiny of the data collection practices of these platforms has followed their rapid deployment, as new variants led to renewed restrictions on in-person education and childcare. That scrutiny is likely to continue in the new year, as the use of such platforms persists, even as the pandemic subsides. In this post, we survey the developments during 2021 and assess the future of child and student privacy in 2022.
Continue Reading Trends in Child and Student Privacy