Research Report: International regulatory decisions on EdTech data practices

The joint LSE and 5Rights Digital Futures for Children research centre has recently published a report on international regulatory decisions concerning EdTech companies’ data practices and a brief analysis of recent changes to policies and practices in Google’s Workspace for Education.

Recent regulatory decisions across the world highlight the increasing global concerns about the data practices of EdTech companies in schools.

The new report by the joint LSE and 5Rights Digital Futures for Children research centre shines a light on key issues surrounding EdTech, namely surveillance and profiling of children in education for commercial purposes, data transfers made with inadequate protection, a lack of transparency by tech companies as to data collection, and failures to properly restrict the purposes for which children’s data could be used.

An analysis of regulatory and legal actions in different countries shows that EdTech companies have breached data protection laws, with schools and local authorities bearing the consequences of legal obligations as the responsibility falls on them as data controllers. However, schools often have insufficient control over how EdTech companies handle children’s data and lack the knowledge and resources to meet the requirements set out by GDPR.