Don’t go ‘Along’ with corporate schemes to gather up student data

Abstract

The Along digital SEL product marketed to teachers by Gradient Learning and the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative (CZI) promises to help teachers establish strong relationships with their students via an exchange of personal reflections. In so doing, it collects intimate personal information from students about their lives. Faith Boninger and Alex Molnar explain how the legal documents that govern Gradient’s retention and use of students’ data allow Gradient to retain students’ de-identified data in perpetuity and use it for unknown purposes. They explain the privacy and other threats associated with de-identified data, and warn against allowing education technology providers — particularly Gradient and the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative — unfettered use of it.