With schools shut in India for more than a year, children are using apps recommended by educators, teachers and the government to access learning content. Young learners, especially in elementary grades that do not have regular online classes are contributing to the exponential use of free online learning platforms. This is complemented by sections of society who are unable to afford private tuition.
India’s shift to digitizing education comes with several challenges, specifically for marginalized communities who do not share the access, technical literacy, and resources that middle and higher-income communities do. While the focus remains on providing the digital infrastructure to support the students with devices and internet access, children’s data is the top priority as schools gradually implement blended learning programs. In the given scenario, the absence of regulation for children’s data protection leaves all children vulnerable and more so low income communities and lays bare the underpreparedness of the country to make the transition to digital learning.
The rise in the use of ed-tech to deliver content to children in schools raises an important question, one that is largely being overlooked -What about the nature of children’s data being collected on such learning apps? Are privacy policy and safety of children’s data an afterthought? -Inclusivity is thought of in terms of access but we must broaden this understanding
While the responsible use of data could lead to solutions for problems related to digital education, there is also scope for misuse. According to the UNICEF’s Data Governance Manifesto, there are thousands of data points collected by the time a child turns 18. This has serious ethical implications for children’s digital data which includes, but is not limited to, potential abuse of personal data by governments for surveillance and tracking, private sector companies that use data generated from devices and use it to make business decisions such as targeted advertising. The players involved are collecting, processing, using, and selling children’s data based on proxy or uninformed consent of children and their parents.
The data of young learners has a direct impact on their interactions with the real world. A study conducted by Sitra revealed that one of the 16 year old test subject’s data was transmitted to 114 companies and 44 advertising firms; which included profile, location history, task lists and youtube searches amongst other highly disaggregated data. With the involvement of data brokers children’s personal information is available in the market, which is used to target ads and content on social media. As children emotionally develop, potentially harmful content could manipulate their emotions, actions and world view, not to mention how it severely limits their exposure to the socio-economic strata that their data points correspond with, keeping them looped in the same cycles.
In the Indian ed-tech space, technology has been heralded as an enabler of access to quality education – making education more equitable and inclusive. While 20% of the Samagra Siksha Abhiyan budget was spent on ‘Quality Interventions’ in the year 2020-21 which accounts for several ICT interventions such as e-Pathshala and Diksha among others, it fails to address pre-existing systemic inequalities. Emerging private sector ed-tech platforms also aim to democratise access to learning resources and cater to differentiated learning needs, but fail to take into consideration the various compounded vulnerabilities of the targeted end user. Both government and private players fail to consider how these concerns may play out for different social groups. As a result, the current interventions built on existing infrastructure has not allowed technology to be an equaliser when it comes to addressing inequities in education. It has instead further exacerbated the inequities.
A review of the high impact ed-tech apps like Diksha App, e-Pathshala, Disney: Byju’s Early Learn, Byju’s App- Class 4&5 and Kutuki, reveal two significant barriers in gaining ethical consent to collecting children’s data.
First, it is difficult to access privacy policies on their User Interface. Out of the 5 apps reviewed, only Kutuki has the privacy policy available on all platforms i.e. website, App Store, Google Play Store, and in-app. Privacy policies of free apps being obscure discourages end-users from accessing, reading and questioning them. Although the privacy policy of all the apps is available on the Google Play Store, the section for that is separate, which could easily be overlooked rendering end users tacit compliance with the policy. Byju’s App- Class 4 & 5, made access visible, however, the privacy policy does not open through the in-app link and the App Store link. As ‘dark patterns’ seep into privacy design, these apps move further away from ethical and informed consent of children for data collection.
Second, the privacy policies are in english. According to a Lok Foundation Survey, Hindi is the most widely spoken first language followed by Bengali, Marathi, and Telugu, making English the language of the upper class and upper castes as well. The developers of apps catering to a varied demographic are responsible for a more inclusive approach to actively provide the user with privacy policy where the app itself encourages the user to read the policy and does so through multiple forms and mediums as opposed to passively presenting it on a single platform in one language. The language of the policy is essential to regard it as both accessible and inclusive. Except for e-Pathshala, which provides its policy in Hindi, but fails to do so in any other regional language, all the apps reviewed above provide its policy in English.
As children legally cannot consent to sharing their data, the onus falls on the parent of the student to provide consent on their behalf. With 90% of the Indian population being digitally illiterate, this raises the question of whether consent, if any, was informed. For instance, in a primary government school classroom with students aged 5-11 years, digital illiteracy was commonly reported among family members and students. According to a study conducted in Aligarh, only 14.28% of women owned smartphones, of which none of them knew how to download apps or about the existence of an app store itself. Considering that the default language of such platforms is English, in such cases, if the app lacks the option to immediately select a more familiar language, it would severely impair the student’s ability to navigate through it, much less interact with the privacy policy and understand its implications.
The developers might not seek to exclude groups of students through their learning apps, it is something that happens if active considerations of inclusivity are not kept in mind while developing the app. As innovation and technology become more integrated into teaching processes at younger ages, they need to be met with adequate response by enabling learners with digital skills and technical knowledge to be in control of the information they share. This is where the government and regulatory authorities should step in and chart the course, ensuring that the needs of the largest possible demographic are addressed through. The access and inclusivity of apps are not just significant in mitigating India’s digital divide, but also towards setting the tone for ethical data practices as the ed-tech industry grows. This can be done when regulation precedes technology and caters to public interest, that I shall discuss in the next blog.