Human Rights Watch (HRW) on Monday revealed that some educational websites created for Brazilian students conducted surveillance on children and harvested their personal data. Two of the eight websites in question are owned and operated by the education secretariats of Minas Gerais and São Paulo.
“Children and their families in Brazil are being kept in the dark about the data surveillance conducted on children in online classrooms,” Hye Jung Han, children’s rights and technology researcher and advocate at HRW, said. “Instead of protecting children, state governments have willfully enabled anyone to surveil them and collect their personal information online.”
Most countries have stringent data protection requirements for companies that process children’s data. In the United States, lawmakers have closely scrutinized social media apps like TikTok and Instagram in recent years for their handling of children’s data. HRW has called for the Brazilian government to appropriately amend its data protection law to ensure children are not exposed to such invasive surveillance.
Invasive Data Harvesting and Tracking
Online educational websites became popular during the COVID-19 pandemic. The education secretariats of both Brazilian states authorized the use of their websites during the pandemic. This means students had no realistic way of escaping surveillance at the time, as it meant missing out on school. These educational websites were initially offered to free and promoted by the government, which led to many schools adopting them.
HRW said at least five websites used “particularly invasive tracking techniques to invisibly surveil children in ways that were impossible to avoid or protect against.”
In light of these revelations, the Minas Gerais education secretariat has removed all ad trackers from its website. However, their counterparts in São Paulo are yet to do so.
“The São Paulo education secretariat continues to endorse the use of seven educational websites that improperly harvest children’s personal data, including its own,” HRW stated. “It did not respond to four requests for comment from Human Rights Watch.”
HRW found one São Paulo-backed website — Escola Mais — using session recording. This technique allows third parties to track and record user behavior on a webpage, including mouse clicks and movements on the site. HRW said third parties typically use this data to predict user behavior and personality.
“Advertisers might use these insights to target the child with personalized content and ads that follow them across the internet,” HRW said.
Websites Used Tracking Tech Designed for Advertising
HRW identified seven educational websites that used tracking technologies designed for advertising and shared harvested data with third parties specializing in behavioral advertising. Another website also shared user data with a third-party company, albeit without relying on ad-tracking techniques.
Here is the complete list of websites listed in the report:
- Estude em Casa
- Centro de Mídias da Educação de São Paulo
- Descomplica
- Escola Mais
- Explicaê
- MangaHigh
- Stoodi
- Revisa Enem
While it’s the primary responsibility of parents and guardians to keep children safe online, governments and schools also have a role to play in protecting children from harm.
If you’re looking for a parental control app for your family, we recommend reading our reviews of Kaspersky Safe Kids and Norton Family to make an informed decision.
