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defenddigitalme.bsky.social
Defend Digital Me
@defenddigitalme.bsky.social
Defend Digital Me is a call to action to protect learners’ rights to privacy. We are teachers and parents who campaign for safe, fair and transparent data processing in education, in England, and beyond. http://defenddigitalme.org
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School pupils’ ‘sex survey’ data offered to researchers: Opt out fails children on reuse of #ID and Local Authorities’ survey

defenddigitalme.org/2025/02/05/s...

#Scotland #Health #Wellbeing #DataBill #DUABill #CWBSBill #DataProtection #privacy #AI #Copyright Children's Wellbeing and Schools Bill
Reposted by Defend Digital Me
In England, children are tracked from birth through education databases that record their lives in detail. These systems are vast, permanent, and invisible to most families.
privacyinternational.org/long-read/56...
From Playground to Database: child data in education
In England’s schools, children are not only pupils but also data subjects. From the moment they are born, a digital record begins to take shape — one that will follow them through nursery, primary…
privacyinternational.org
November 1, 2025 at 3:57 PM
Reposted by Defend Digital Me
Education should nurture curiosity, not feed algorithms that children are unable to consent to. It’s time to question how deeply surveillance is being built into childhood itself.

Read our article with @defenddigitalme.bsky.social 👉 privacyinternational.org/long-read/56...
From Playground to Database: child data in education
In England’s schools, children are not only pupils but also data subjects. From the moment they are born, a digital record begins to take shape — one that will follow them through nursery, primary…
privacyinternational.org
November 1, 2025 at 3:57 PM
Reposted by Defend Digital Me
noyb.eu noyb @noyb.eu · Oct 10
🎉 Big #WIN for student privacy! 🔒 Austria’s DPA has issued a decision finding that #Microsoft 365 Education illegally tracks pupils and uses student data for Microsoft's own purposes.

📰 Read the full blog post, including a comment by Max #Schrems 👉 noyb.eu/en/noyb-win-...
noyb win: Microsoft 365 Education tracks school children
Favorable decision by the Austrian DSB: Microsoft Education 365 may not track school kids and Microsoft is ordered to provide full access to kids' data.
noyb.eu
October 10, 2025 at 8:35 AM
Lord Frost, Children's Wellbeing and #SchoolsBill 3/7/2025, "we are seeing the erosion of the vital principle that freedom and autonomy are fundamentally important and that the state does not have the right to go anywhere it wants at will".

www.youtube.com/watch?v=kdZb...

#education 1/2
Lord Frost July 3, 2025 Children's Wellbeing and Schools Bill
YouTube video by defend digital me
www.youtube.com
July 5, 2025 at 10:37 AM
Our interview @privacyinternational.org podcast includes discussion of UK Department for #Education “Futures research looking at the implications of the use of #genomics in relation to education, focusing on 2 potential future scenarios.”

Timely in context of recent news www.bbc.com/news/article...
June 23, 2025 at 8:06 AM
Reposted by Defend Digital Me
I already knew of the issues surrounding DfE collection of pupil data and the UK database state but this is a really eye-opening and interesting (by which I mean horrifying) account of that by Jen Peersen from @defenddigitalme.bsky.social. I highly recommend you give it a listen
youtu.be/3vb_JysheF0
Learning about learners: Protecting Children's Data
YouTube video by Privacy International
youtu.be
June 14, 2025 at 12:09 PM
#NHS number to be national ID mandated in Children’s Wellbeing and #SchoolsBill

Key points of what we know, and seven areas of scrutiny and challenge, particularly as Clause 31 in the Bill is debated soon and its potential for scope creep, as happening in Wales

defenddigitalme.org/2025/06/14/n...
NHS number to be national ID mandated in Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill — Defend Digital Me
There are three key things going on in parallel about the Single Unique Identifier (“SUI”) ID mandated in Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill and children’s NHS number: 1. The Government has confirm...
defenddigitalme.org
June 19, 2025 at 2:07 PM
“Learning about learners: Protecting Children's #Data@PrivacyInternational.org with @JenPersson.com (June 2025).

Current issues in education in England: What’s in a National Pupil Record? #EdTech, #AI, what futures are possible and how and why it matters

privacyinternational.org/video/5598/l...
June 17, 2025 at 12:08 PM
Excited to be participating at the ‘Data Tech and Black Communities’ report launch in Birmingham.

The first part of a wide range of their work. On #edTech #pupildata and #HumanRights empowering children and families in state education in England. dtbc.org.uk

More coming soon.
June 7, 2025 at 1:24 PM
Reposted by Defend Digital Me
What happens when public data is shared with the wrong people?

🗃️ The Department for Education (DfE) maintains records about everybody who has received state-funded education in England since 1996 in the National Pupil Database. It routinely shares this information with third parties.

(1/3)
June 3, 2025 at 4:00 PM
Reposted by Defend Digital Me
📢 CDT Europe and 88 others just sent a joint letter to the European Commission warning against plans that risk weakening end-to-end #encryption in the EU.

Strong encryption protects everyone’s security. We need to defend it, not undermine it. #E2EE #ProtectEU
Joint Letter on Encryption and the European Internal Security Strategy (ProtectEU)
On 26 May 2025, CDT Europe, as part of the steering committee of the Global Encryption Coalition, alongside 88 civil society organisations, companies, and cybersecurity experts published a joint lette...
cdt.org
May 26, 2025 at 9:01 AM
On #WorldVampireDay — you can use a ‘Subject Access Request’ to ask the DfE for a copy of all the personal data sucked out from your school about you or your child since 2002.

Find out: Who’s been given it & why? What is kept forever? #DraculaDay #Education

defenddigitalme.org/my-school-re...
May 26, 2025 at 9:35 AM
The summer term #school #census opens in England today. But do parents know where pupil records go each term? Will the new ICO Code of Practice for #education help?

“Unlawful, unsafe and unaccountable. Education, we have a #data problem.” (2020) in Schools Week schoolsweek.co.uk/unlawful-uns... 1/2
Unlawful, unsafe and unaccountable. Education's big data problem
A damning ICO report on the DfE’s data handling is a wake-up call for the department - and schools can also learn from it, writes Jen Persson
schoolsweek.co.uk
May 15, 2025 at 9:07 AM
Reposted by Defend Digital Me
Tomorrow is the deadline!! 🌟
May 8, 2025 at 12:05 PM
Reposted by Defend Digital Me
In August last year the UK government announced a share of £1m to award to AI companies who bring forward the best ideas to reduce teacher workload by March 2025.

Anyone seen an announcement of the successful tools?

www.gov.uk/search/news-...
News and communications
Find news and communications from government
www.gov.uk
April 17, 2025 at 1:19 PM
This weekend, we've a little Easter egg for dystopian fiction fans. Or is it?

"You are a Year 10 pupil at Horizon Academy. You didn’t sign up for the new system. No one asked for your permission. But your school bought it anyway. What do you do?"

Choose wisely in our Twine.

#HappyEaster2025 1/8🧵
April 17, 2025 at 4:01 PM
Reposted by Defend Digital Me
#Childrights are under threat and so are the organisations defending them. Anti-rights movements are using #childprotection language to roll back progress.
We need a strong, funded #civilsociety to fight back. Read our Secretary General Sabine Saliba's blog 👇https://buff.ly/njjh8cD
April 11, 2025 at 7:43 AM
Reposted by Defend Digital Me
The Children’s Wellbeing and #Schools Bill so far: Impact Assessment & scrutiny not fit for purpose defenddigitalme.org/2025/02/07/i... #Data

Pushing everything 'too difficult' into #CWBSBill secondary regs gets them passed without scrutiny but makes Bill high-risk schoolsweek.co.uk/campaigners-...
Impact Assessment and scrutiny not fit for purpose: the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill so far — Defend Digital Me
Today, MP Neil O’Brien,”put on record,” that the Minister will be, “well aware of some of the concerns about the clause that are coming to us from civil society.” “I am sure that she will have seen th...
defenddigitalme.org
February 7, 2025 at 2:30 PM
Reposted by Defend Digital Me
The panel includes:

- Kay Firth-Butterfield, DSC - Leo Ratledge, Co-Director of the Child Rights International Network
- Jen Persson (@jenpersson.com) , founder of Defend Digital Me @defenddigitalme.bsky.social
- Tracey Gyateng, co-founder of Data, Tech and Black Communities

#ChildRightsDSC
March 12, 2025 at 2:39 PM
Reposted by Defend Digital Me
📣Doughty Street Chambers Children’s Rights Group Annual Children’s Rights Lecture 2024 |Thursday 13 March 2025, 17.30 – 19:00 📣

The lecture will be delivered by
@sonialivingstone.bsky.social, London School of Economics and Political Science. The event will be chaired by @aoifenolan.bsky.social
DOUGHTY STREET CHAMBERS CHILDREN’S RIGHTS GROUP ANNUAL CHILDREN’S RIGHTS LECTURE 2024
DOUGHTY STREET CHAMBERS CHILDREN’S RIGHTS GROUP ANNUAL CHILDREN’S RIGHTS LECTURE 2024Thursday 13 March 2025, 17.30 – 19:00 GMT, followed by a reception until 20:00 GMT.Every year, in November, the int...
www.doughtystreet.co.uk
March 12, 2025 at 2:39 PM
Reposted by Defend Digital Me
The panel includes:

- Kay Firth-Butterfield, DSC
- Leo Ratledge, Co-Director of the Child Rights International Network
- Jen Persson (@jenpersson.com) , founder of Defend Digital Me @defenddigitalme.bsky.social
- Tracey Gyateng, co-founder of Data, Tech and Black Communities

#ChildRightsDSC
March 3, 2025 at 9:41 AM
The Children’s Wellbeing and #Schools Bill so far: Impact Assessment & scrutiny not fit for purpose defenddigitalme.org/2025/02/07/i... #Data

Pushing everything 'too difficult' into #CWBSBill secondary regs gets them passed without scrutiny but makes Bill high-risk schoolsweek.co.uk/campaigners-...
Impact Assessment and scrutiny not fit for purpose: the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill so far — Defend Digital Me
Today, MP Neil O’Brien,”put on record,” that the Minister will be, “well aware of some of the concerns about the clause that are coming to us from civil society.” “I am sure that she will have seen th...
defenddigitalme.org
February 7, 2025 at 2:30 PM
Reposted by Defend Digital Me
School pupils’ ‘sex survey’ data offered to researchers: Opt out fails children on reuse of #ID and Local Authorities’ survey

defenddigitalme.org/2025/02/05/s...

#Scotland #Health #Wellbeing #DataBill #DUABill #CWBSBill #DataProtection #privacy #AI #Copyright Children's Wellbeing and Schools Bill
February 5, 2025 at 10:36 AM
School pupils’ ‘sex survey’ data offered to researchers: Opt out fails children on reuse of #ID and Local Authorities’ survey

defenddigitalme.org/2025/02/05/s...

#Scotland #Health #Wellbeing #DataBill #DUABill #CWBSBill #DataProtection #privacy #AI #Copyright Children's Wellbeing and Schools Bill
February 5, 2025 at 10:36 AM