Terms, Privacy, and Policies, OH MY!

I love HOMER teachers!

Let's talk about Terms of Service and Privacy Policies.  You know, those long heartfelt letters the companies write to us that we agree to before using their products?  The ones that no one ever actually reads, but we just agree to anyways.  Because...  time.  Who has the time? 

I definitely do not, but here I am on my Winter Break reading 3 of the most used by myself and teachers in my district.  Why?  Because I love you all and I thought I would do it for you so you don't have to!  See?  Who loves ya Homer?  This girl!

Nearpod

I decided to start with Nearpod because a lot of teachers in our district use it.  If you're not familiar with Nearpod, it is a way for teachers to share their presentation's on the student's devices.  It also allows for teachers to "poll the audience" and ask questions that the students can respond to on their own device.  This is great because teachers can monitor the answers and share what they want.  It gives a voice to even the quiet and shy students who do not always participate in class.

Nearpod's Terms and Conditions, as well as their Privacy Policy, was probably the easiest for me to read, annotate, and overall understand.  The whole purpose and intent of this website and application is to be used by teachers.  That's it.  Within the Terms and Conditions, it flat out says that they will not collect any identifiable information for anyone under the age of 13.  If they do, they ask for you to contact them so it can be deleted.  They also give a lot of the regular jargon about not being responsible for anything that comes from using their product.  It is what it is and how you use it is on you.

The thing that surprised me the most was how careful they are with student data.  They mention it over and over that they do NOT collect any personally identifiable information from students and that they do not even allow students to make an account.  Even though the website uses "cookies," they still do not collect student information.  They do automatically collect IP addresses and possibly the version number that is being run on a specific device.  This is in the event of crashes so the logs can be sent to the developers to check on fixes.

I personally believe that Nearpod would be compliant with the new NY Edlaw 2D which makes me sigh with relief.  They (seem to) make a conscious effort to protect student privacy and teachers, as well.

Facebook

Let's be honest, not everyone uses Facebook.  BUT... most people do.  I wanted to throw a site out there that most people are at least familiar with.

Facebook's Terms of Service is quite extensive.  They make navigating the document easy with a side menu.  I was able to go through and read the entire document in about 45 minutes.  After reading the whole thing, I had two big takeaways.  First, you have a lot of control over what you share and what is posted; make sure you check it often and thoroughly.  Second, I'm going to stop posting on Facebook!

Facebook has rules that limit its use to children (you have to be 13 years old to get an account) but obviously, anyone can lie about their age.  They do make it easy to share photos, commentary, discussion, and polls with private groups or specific people.  This would seem like it's a good tool to use in the classroom, right?  Probably not.  Especially if you aren't tech-savvy and you don't understand all the privacy settings.  Long story short?  If you share something publically on Facebook, you "give us permission to store, copy, and share it with others (again, consistent with your settings) such as service providers that support our service or other Facebook Products you use" (Terms 3.3).  Now, if your settings say they cannot share it with 3rd party advertisers or the public, you don't have anything to worry about.

The other thing Facebook does that I don't like is they use your data for so many things.  First, they track you across websites.  If you keep Facebook logged in on your device, it tracks all the websites and other places you go.  Secondly, your identity can be used in ads that are shown to others.  If you like something it can be shared with other people on Facebook.  You can turn this off!  Check out this blog here that walks you through it.  Finally, although there is so many others, the biggest thing that freaks me out is that even if your account is deleted, it actually doesn't go away.  You still exist if you shared anything with anyone on Facebook and they did not delete it.  Right, because we never share anything on Facebook.  HA!

Google

I decided to end with the BIG one.  THE GOOGLE, which is what I call it to be funny and ironic...  

Let's login to "The Google."  

Have you tried searching for it on "The Google?"

We can find all the answer on "The Google!"

Yup.  Google is such a huge part of our lives, it's hard to even imagine our lives without it!  I even find myself telling my students how rough my childhood was because I grew up without it!  It is reminiscent of my dad telling me how tough his childhood was because he had to walk 2 miles uphill (in both directions) in the snow to school every day. 

The Terms of Service and Privacy Policy are very, very long.  Plus, the Terms only cover the general Google world.  If you want even more specifics, they have an additional few pages of terms for each of their apps and services.  If you really want to delve into them, here are the additional terms for Chrome, Drive, and Maps.  Just to name three, out of so many I don't even have time to count.  If you'd like to see the whole list, here it is.

At this point, unless you do not own a smartphone or do not go on the internet, you must have an inkling that Google is everywhere.  When you open up your social media, the advertisements are for things you had mentioned yesterday.  You type in a search in Google and what you want pops right up on the first try.  Do you think it's all coincidence?  Nope.   Google is everywhere.

It took me a few days to get through all the terms and the privacy policy thoroughly.  I'll save you from all the boring stuff I'm sure you know and just tell you what surprised me the most.

1.  They screen everything.  EVERYTHING.  This includes your emails that you send, receive, and save in draft form.

2.  They do provide a Security Check that you can use and offer many suggestions on how to protect yourself (from them!) online.   Of course, if you don't check yourself often, it can update and change without notice.

3.  To have a google account, you must be 13 years old.  Of course, anyone can create an account and lie about their age or have an account made for them.  I'm just surprised they actually have an age requirement since there is no age requirement for having a device (even a Google device!).

4.  Even in anonymous mode (incognito mode), your searches are never really private.  I guess no one should be surprised at this, but GoDuckGo actually did a study on this, here.  I know that GDG is a competitor, but still... their research is interesting and shouldn't be ignored.

The funniest (and scariest, when you really think about it) thing that Google says in response to any concerns you may have with all of this is, is that you can stop using their services.  After doing all this reading and seeing how widespread Google really is, I'm not sure this would even be possible!  

Closure

After completing this endeavor, I can honestly say I'm glad I did it.  I read a lot of really long lawyer lingo and added a few fancy words to my lexicon.  I also have a new awareness of what protections are available to me, my personal data, and my online presence.  It also makes me more aware of my children's digital lives.  They have had a digital footprint before they were even born!  (My fault for posting their sonogram pictures online!)  Even though we use Google for Education at our school, and even though I'm always mindful of using technology, I am going to be extra vigilant when it comes to what we post.

In closing, I wanted to share that I found a great website called "Terms of Service; Didn't Read," which is a nonprofit website that has people analyze terms for us regular people and scores them on a letter grading scale.  Here is their analysis of Google and here is the analysis of Facebook.  Their summaries are easy to read and straight to the point.  I wish I would have found this before doing all my research, but it did make me feel validated in all of my analysis of the reading I did.

If you have any questions or comments about what I read, please feel free to reach out!  I'd love to know what other people think.