What Companies Do With Kids’ Data

A thoughtful, provocative, and well-informed essay about the commodification of data in education, courtesy of Audrey Watters. It happened to come out the same day @storify said it would be shutting down its product, and saying nothing about what it would do with children’s and teachers’ data. Here’s how I and a couple respected education technology folks tried to make sense of Storify’s data plans on Twitter:

I assume that’s rhetorical, in terms of being directed to me. Because if it ain’t in the FAQ, I have no idea. Let’s hope @Storify will answer it.

— Frank Catalano (@FrankCatalano) December 13, 2017

Indeed! Agreed that the answer should be in FAQs…where details are conspicuously absent. @Storify says users can export their data, but they do NOT say what THEY (the company) are going to do w/ users’ data, including private information about minors. cc @hackeducation

— tomliamlynch (@tomliamlynch) December 13, 2017

Thanks @douglevin ! That sure does seem ironic, calling it a privacy policy. Seems more like “privacy piracy”. Let’s see what @Storify says officially on this matter. 🙏 for the dialogue.

— tomliamlynch (@tomliamlynch) December 13, 2017