Hundreds of online learning apps threaten children’s privacy

Human Rights Watch (HRW) studied more than 150 online learning products in 49 countries and found that 89% of the apps collect data without the consent of learners or their parents. What’s more, HRW found that 146 out of 164 apps and products sent young user data to 199 third parties, who then bombarded children with targeted ads.

In the expert study, there were separate points about Google and Meta. Tech giants used special trackers to collect student data.

“Children were forced to pay for education with their privacy rights,” says HRW in a report titled “How dare they pry into my privacy?”.

Human Rights Watch noted that online conferencing applications (Zoom, Microsoft Teams and Cisco Webex) could also collect children’s data.