DATAPROTECTIONDAY

“Privacy is a human right – treat it with care” *

 

Privacy is a fundamental human right. It underpins human dignity and other values such freedom of speech. It has become one of the most important human rights of the modern age. The information contained in this kit examines privacy from multiple perspectives and provides ideas to work on the topic with your students.

How do teachers define privacy?

“It’s about other people respecting my rights. I should be able to expect certain things with regards to my privacy and feel confident that laws will support this.”

“Privacy is about the right to keep private stuff private, to choose whether you want other people to see it or not.”

Children and young people have a slightly different view of privacy (see below) and it is important to acknowledge that they need support in dealing with some of the issues that privacy or lack of it can create.

How do children and young people define privacy?

“When you are on your own in cyberspace, privacy is being able to do what you want without people butting in.” Nicholas, 13

“It’s being able to do things online without anyone seeing or knowing what you’re doing.” Rachel, 11

Privacy has many aspects.

At the most fundamental level, privacy means the right to be left alone – to be free from intrusion. Privacy may involve secrecy, anonymity and also solitude. Informational privacy entails rules about the collection and handling of personal data such as your age and gender or your medical information. These rules require, for example, that your data is handled fairly and securely, and that you can access and correct it. Privacy also entails the freedom from being ‘watched’.

Privacy can be lost, whether through your own choice or through the action of another person.

In the online world, communications often relies on an exchange of personal information. When you use free web content and services, e-mail, instant messaging and social networking sites, you may give information about yourself to your friends and make it visible for a more general public. Others may do the same – without your consent. Think about students getting hold of or starting to share personal photos and details of teachers that could impact negatively on their career (see Case Studies at http://www.teachtoday.eu/en/Case-studies.aspx). It is worth remembering that it is not simply the material that you post, but things that friends may post onto their sites – for example, an image that you are in.

You need to choose how much information you want to disclose about yourself when you communicate with others. It is also important that you understand how your information will be used and what you have consented to when you agree to the terms and conditions on websites (for example when collected for targeted advertising). Sharing your email address publicly can also increase the number of spam emails you receive. [1]You need to stay in control of your personal information.

Young people are often effective multipliers in teaching about privacy and data protection because they are best placed to deliver eSafety and privacy messages relevant to the concerns of their peers. Yet they themselves can often be very vulnerable, as they do not always understand the complexities and risks of online life. It is important that they have the opportunity to discuss privacy and data-protection with adults in order to benefit from their life-experience and see the issues from a broader perspective. It is possible that giving out too much personal information can make them vulnerable to risk from online predators, however by far the biggest concern is that the internet will never forget and something that is posted will always be there!

United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC)

Article 13 of the UNCRC says that: “children have the right to get and share information as long as the information is not damaging to them or to others.”

Article 16 of the UNCRC says that: “children have a right to privacy. The law should protect them from attacks against their way of life, their good name....”

For more information on the UNCRC, visit http://www.unicef.org/crc/.

Council of Europe

The following link will take you to the fact sheet on privacy that is part of the internet literacy handbook published by the council of Europe. It contains some useful suggestions on best practice for keeping personal information private.

http://www.coe.int/t/e/integrated_projects/democracy/02_activities/03_internet_literacy/internet_literacy_handbook/16_privacy.asp

European Commission

The European Commission has a useful website which explains what your rights as a citizen are. This information can be found at http://ec.europa.eu/justice_home/fsj/privacy/guide/index_en.htm

How do you as a professional working with children and young people protect your own privacy?

Some hints and tips:

• Make sure that you are aware of your privacy settings when using social networking sites.
• Have a neutral picture of yourself as your profile image. Don’t post any material that could be embarrassing.
• Never accept friend requests from students on social networking sites.
• Keep your professional activities and your personal online activities separate. It is a good idea to set up a web-based email account and use this for any personal communication. Only use a work email address for professional communication.
• You need to be a role-model for copyright. Ensure that any material that you use has open licensing (i.e. copyright free) or is cleared for use (i.e. you have asked for permission) and discuss these issues with your students. For more information on copyright, see http://bit.ly/3ymRtT

Classroom activities

Data Protection Day Competition

Every year from October until January, young people are invited to take part in the Data Protection Day Competition by creating videos or multimedia presentations about privacy. The competition is aimed at 15-19 year olds who live in one of the member states of the EU. Further information is available at www.dataprotectionday.eu or www.saferinternet.org.

ICT literacy and knowledge building

Young people should consider issues of privacy, security and data protection. Using their knowledge of the ways in which children and young people are using online and mobile technologies, invite them to demonstrate some of the risks users face and provide possible solutions and means of addressing the risks. Encourage them to make a presentation for their peers to raise awareness about potential dangers and how to stay safe online.

Safety, privacy and data protection/security

Young people need to consider the types of personal information they give away when they are online and reflect on how they can protect themselves from this material being used by others in a way they had not previously intended. What would their top tips be for others?

Points to consider:

• Ensure that messages are clear and concise and that they can be communicated without the barrier of language
• Encourage young people to think about the concepts of “public” and private” information, the deeper issues linked to privacy and data protection, and their responsibility in keeping their own and others’ personal information safe.
• Recognising that online behaviours can have offline consequences is important. Everything we do online leaves a trail – the digital footprint means that we are not anonymous.

Video

The DPD video on the website at www.dataprotectionday.eu can be used to stimulate debate on the subject of privacy. The video uses images from the offline world to demonstrate privacy and how young people would feel if that privacy was taken away from them. It illustrates clearly the steps that are taken in the real world to protect privacy and then encourages the viewer to consider how they protect their privacy in the online or virtual world.

The video could also be used as a stimulus to encourage students to make their own awareness-raising material, explaining the risks to their peers.

The innovative teachers’ competition

Every year, highly innovative teachers are selected by their schools to attend an Innovative Teachers contest for their country. The most innovative are then selected to participate in a regional forum. Microsoft’s 6^th European Innovative Teachers Forum will be hold in Berlin from the 23 to 25 March 2010. This event recognises and rewards teachers who practice the elements of 21^st century learning in their own classrooms, and incorporate these skills into the student learning environment. Use the Data Protection Day competition to showcase your own innovative skills, or if you are a data protection savvy, submit your project in the content category. The Innovative Teachers’ competition comprises 3 categories in all: collaboration, community and content.

For more information consult http://www.microsoft.com/education/pil/IT_home.aspx or contact Cecilie Lind, t-ceclin@microsoft.com

Classroom discussion ideas

• Who still writes a diary? Ask how many students have online profiles or blogs of one sort or another?
• How many have their profiles private? Why have they done this? Encourage a debate around whether it is best to have a public or private profile. What sort of information is it safe to include on a public profile?
• Have the students ever posted something about themselves or others that could be thought to be inappropriate by someone else? Have they considered who might come across this material and the impact that this could have?
• Have they considered that future employers may carry out an internet search to see what additional information they can find about a candidate? Do any of the students have anything about them online that they wish wasn’t there?
• Remind the students that although material that they post online now may seem amusing and just a joke, how would they feel if their children saw this in 15 years time? Show the video “The Photo Album” which provides a good example of one way to address these privacy issues and considers the longer-term consequences. http://www.dubestemmer.no/english.php
• What do the students know about basic human rights? Do they know what a human right is? How many can they name? A human right is defined by Wikipedia as “a basic right that all humans should be guaranteed.” ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_rights)
  • http://www.un.org/en/documents/udhr/ provides details of the human rights as recognised by the United Nations.
  • The European Charter of fundamental rights covers European member states: http://www.europarl.europa.eu/charter/default_en.htm

It is important to remember that children and young people rarely get the opportunity to discuss privacy issues, yet from working with them, it is clear that privacy is a concern for them. They can learn a lot from the life experiences of their parents and teachers. The following scenarios are intended to provide a starting point for discussion with your class.

Possible scenarios

1. You and a group of friends go to a party; pictures of the party are posted online in various places. Some of these show you in what could be described as embarrassing situations. You were only messing around but taken out of context these pictures could cause you problems. You didn’t post any of these pictures but they have been tagged and are easily accessible. Although you know some of the people who were at the party you don’t know them all and the images seem to be everywhere. What are the implications of this and what action could you take to prevent this from causing you problems? Although in the short term this might not cause too many difficulties, consider the potential impact this could have in the future. Encourage the students to think carefully about how the way the material that is posted online can have consequences in the real world. It doesn’t matter who posted the material in the first place, if it exists then the damage may already be done. How can they portray this within the video?
2. A good friend has been barred from the school internet and asks if he/she can use your username and password to log in to do some research for a project. You give the information but later discover that your friend left the password on a piece of paper in the computer room and it has now disappeared. What could the consequences be? What should you do? Ask the students how careful they are with passwords and security data. Do they appreciate the need to be more careful? What are the possible dangers of not keeping this sort of personal information safe? Could the video encourage others to think about the possible consequences of this?
3. Whilst shopping on a Saturday, you are approached by someone claiming to be from a charity. They make it very clear that they do not want any money, but would like to generate support for a campaign that they are running in order to raise awareness of child poverty. As this seems like a good cause, you listen and acknowledge your interest. You are then asked to complete a form which asks for a range of personal information including your name and address. What could the consequences be? What could you do in order to protect your privacy?
4. You make a phone call to the local cinema in order to book tickets for a film that you and some mates have been keen to see. You are asked to give your name, address and credit card details in order to secure the booking. You are then asked to provide the security code from your credit card. You feel uneasy about this as you know that having this information means that anyone can use your credit card to purchase goods or services over the internet. You express your concern, but are told that the cinema requires this information to input to their system. You recognise that you are relying on the credibility and trustworthiness of the individual you are speaking to, someone you have never met. Is this is an invasion of your privacy? Is this something that you should be worried about?

FAQ

When I publish information to the web, who does this information belong to?

It is important to read the terms and conditions of a website before posting any information there. The terms and conditions will make clear what happens to your data and who it then belongs to. In some cases, you still own the data but the company who is hosting it on the web has permission to copy, modify the file, etc.

Who owns an image of me?

It is important to recognise who legally owns an image in the first instance. The person who actually takes a photo owns that image, regardless of what is in the image. If you post a picture that you did not take yourself, then you should have the permission of the person who took the image initially before you can post it.

What rights do I have over an image of me that has been placed online?

If an image of you has been taken in public by someone else, you have very little rights to control what happens to it. The image legally belongs to the person who took it. This is based around the argument that you did something in public and in theory anyone could have seen you do this.

However, if an image or video of you is used to endorse a product or is used to advertise something then you have rights to be able to stop this from happening.

If I post something anonymously on the internet is it really anonymous?

You are not invisible on the internet, even if it feels like it. All internet users leave a digital footprint. Every computer has an IP address and a network adapter or network interface card will have a MAC address and this is often the key to finding out who sent specific information, etc.

How much information is there about me online?

Have you ever tried to google yourself? Put your name into a search engine and see what you find? Does it present an accurate picture of you? Have others posted things about you or tagged you in an image?

What can I do if I find inappropriate material about me online?

• Report the incident to the appropriate authority at your place of work.
• The quickest and most effective way of removing content from the internet is to ask the author to delete it - if you know who is responsible for it. Make sure they understand why the material is hurtful and why they should remove it.
• If you don't know who has posted the comments or images or set up the fake social networking profile, report it to the company that runs the website in question straight away.
• Contact a national helpline for further support (http://www.saferinternet.org/ww/en/pub/insafe/focus/national_helplines.htm)

Useful sources of further information

http://www.coe.int/t/e/integrated_projects/democracy/02_activities/03_internet_literacy/internet_literacy_handbook/16_privacy.asp

http://www.coe.int/t/e/integrated_projects/democracy/02_activities/03_internet_literacy/internet_literacy_handbook/17_security.asp

http://www.saferinternet.org/ww/en/pub/insafe/safety_issues/faqs/privacy.htm