Privacy: protecting your students

When teaching online or when integrating digital technologies in a face-to-face or hybrid class, you will have access to records created by your students that may include personal information. Knowledge of how to protect personal information and the privacy rights of students is therefore essential. It is also important to know the privacy risks of using the different types of technologies and online tools you might use in your teaching (technologies for video conferencing, technologies for survey making and administration, etc.) ~Hengstler, 2013

BC’s Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act (FOIPPA/FIPPA) * sets out the access and privacy rights of individuals as they relate to the public sector. Teachers are expected to comply with district guidelines with respect to FOIPPA when handling private and personal information. You need to ensure you keep any student personal information secure (this includes marks, identifying info such as birthdays and contact information). Even if keeping mark records in a binder, a teacher should keep it secure! Take this online FOIPPA training module from MYEdBC to firm up your understanding about privacy.

You are also required to comply with FOIPPA when choosing which technologies to use in your teaching so that you do not violate your students’ FOIPPA rights. Over the past five to ten years, a growing awareness of privacy issues has emerged and school districts have responded by developing policies and guidelines intended to protect children. In depth information about a teacher’s responsibilities when sharing student work online (or having students share their work online) can be found in this document published by Julia Hengstler, Vancouver Island University, in collaboration with the BCTF, Ministry of Education and others:

A K-12 Primer for British Columbia Teachers Posting Students’ Work Online: An overview of key considerations that should be taken by British Columbia K-12 educators when using online sites or services to post student work or exemplars (Hengstler, 2013). This comprehensive document outlines 6 key considerations when posting student work online:

• Copyright & Ownership: the student owns their work.
• Identifiability, content and risks: ensure work contains no identifiable information (ex. metadata, file name, location)
• Storage Location & Risks: consider risk of any online posting (ex. wider sharing, non-canadian housed servers, US patriot act implications, etc)
• Explicit informed consent & risks: legal & ethical responsibility to get informed consent (consider that word – informed… do parents/guardians understand the risks?)
• Safety and protection plan: is there a plan to respond to an e-safety incident?
• Media waiver (likely) non-coverage: consult with school Principal

Generally, when a school district decides to allow the use of a tool that does not house data in Canada, they need to go through a process of determining risks and, in some cases, making an application to the privacy commissioner to vet the expected use and the informed consent and assent procedures they’ll use with teachers, students and families.

In our current COVID-impacted world, the BC Government has made a decision, as an emergency measure, to suspend certain aspects of FOIPPA until the end of June “to temporarily enable the use of technologies that would otherwise be restricted under FOIPPA’s current rules.” (*extended to December 2020). That said, it continues to be essential to consider and protect student data privacy and to be aware of and comply with your district and school’s guidelines.

For the purposes of online and remote learning, some things teachers can do to continue to protect student data privacy:

• utilize school district managed and approved resources. Check before use.
• adjust web conference settings to remove the option of recording synchronous sessions and develop guidelines with students around conduct online (i.e. not taking and sharing screen shots of others/others work)
• ensure any online spaces have been vetted through any district process before using with students and ensure appropriate permissions are in place.
• do not require students to ‘sign up’ for accounts (other than where these are provisioned by the school/district). Where needed, a teacher might sign up for an account after reviewing the privacy policy of the site and, if student accounts are needed, use pseudonyms (avatar names the students choose with teacher keeping a private record), numbers. First names are obviously less private but common practice.
• avoid posting identifiable images of students publicly or unnecessarily. Consider using stickers or filters to protect privacy and avoid posting student names alongside images. Note: ensure the file metadata including title has no identifiable information. Be aware of school community norms and expectations around sharing of student work and images.
• Turn off location services on your phone when taking photos and learn how to turn location services off for different apps.
• Teach your students about data privacy.
• Teach your students how to open an incognito window Ctrl-Shift-N (Windows) or Command-Shift-N (macOS).
• Visit Media Smarts for a wide variety of Canadian student, parent and teacher resources and lessons related to privacy and security. The Data Defenders lesson teaches children and pre-teens about personal information and its value
• Common Sense Education is another, albeit US based, reputable resource for information about digital and media literacy.

Disclaimer: the information provided here is not legal advice – it is information from one educator to another based on my best understanding. As noted, it is important teachers develop a strong understanding of FOIPPA as it applies to their position and to their district guidelines, policies and expectations (which will vary!). Following the publication of this post in Fall 2021, there were some changes made with respect to data privacy in BC. It is always important to be aware of your specific district or context requirements, policies, procedures and norms.

For some tips on protecting your own privacy, visit the Privacy: Protecting Yourself blog post.