Protect Your Students' Personal Information

Personal information What is personally identifiable information? PII: Any information that can be used to identify and reach you. Such asIdentification number, Credit card, information, Race, Nationality, Ethnicity, Origin, Color, Religion, Political parties, Associations, Educational, financial, criminal, employment history, Health care history including information on physical/mental disability, Name, Family members, Address, Email address, Phone number, Age, Gender, Marital status, Family status Why would anyone target me or my students personally? Data brokers may not be targeting you personally or anyone individually. Each site collects data of all users and they become a library of users’ records. These centralized systems of user records attract data brokers like honeypots. Then they either break into the honeypots or the website owners can sell your data intentionally. Data brokers collect digital dossiers on internet users to sell their personal information to marketers for targeted advertisements. These data can be also used for more malicious reasons such as identity theft, identity fraud, and social engineering. How to protect your students? -Cooperate with parents: *Inform parents about the importance of personal information and how to protect it. *Disclose the ed-tech tools you will be using in the classroom for transparency. -Wise selection of technology tools *Check each tool’s privacy terms. *Go through your decision process with your students. *Ask yourself: Does the app or software require personal information to register? What permissions does the app need to function? Do the app developers share personal details with other parties? If so, to what extent? -Empower students *Show students that they are never truly anonymous online. *Help them understand that if a service is free, they and their personal information are the product. *Urge students to read privacy policies of the websites hey are registering to. *Set an example by deliberately and overtly being careful about your data sharing practices in the classroom. *Inform students about data use and privacy rights. -Protect student data *Protect yourself to protect students’ data from data breach. *Encrypt important documents when sending over email. *Develop and implement a schoolwide data sharing policy. *Collect only necessary information about the students. *When you no longer need the personal information destroy it. CHECKLIST to avoid leakage of personal information -Delete cookies frequently -Never ask websites to remember your passwords -Never share personal information on social media platforms. -Avoid sharing personal pictures on the Internet, it’s better to share a drawing. -Keep your app permissions as restricted as possible. -Avoid registering for nonsecure websites to remove potential identity mediators. -Use secure mail servers for sending and receiving emails. -Encrypt important documents when sending over email. -Stop clicking on ads & other offers on the web. -Disable popup windows