Surveillance & privacy in education

Saw "Plurality", a film directed by Dennis Liu and written by Ryan Condal



It was uploaded to youtube on October 1st 2012, and released by Traffik Filmworks.

"Plurality" depicts a highly developed surveillance system that has caused the crime rate of 2023 New York to drop "below that of Cheyenne, Wyoming". and is faultless within a margin of 0.001%. "I think anyone would sacrifice a little bit of privacy for that kind of personal safety", is the well known argument from the protagonists of more police powers. Benjamin Franklin's quote comes to mind: 'They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety.'.

In today's social and educational practice people seem to worry a lot about privacy and the dangers of 'Big Brother is watching you'. Advocacy groups such as Bits of Freedom (Netherlands or the European Digital Rights Initiative keep a close watch on developments in legislation and jurisdiction. In education we need to keep a close watch on developments, but large scale breaches of student privacy have not been reported to my knowledge. Checks and balances should be in place, and the larger MOOC's and platforms like Coursera become, the more vulnerable they will become, to identity theft, viruses and breach of privacy. Teaching the value of privacy and digital safety in general, starting in elementary school, seems to be the best safeguard against runaway surveillance societies.

Further reading might be: Davis, K. & James, C. (2013). Tweens' conception of privacy online: implications for educators. Learning, Media & technology, 38(1), 4-25.