Washington Post reports that "schools have become 'soft targets' for companies trying to gather
data and market to children because of the push in education to adopt
new technology and in part because of the rise of computer-administered
Common Core tests". The Post cites the National Education Policy Center's new annual report titled “Learning to be Watched: Surveillance Culture at School". The report expresses concerns about privacy, commercialization of student lives and companies exploiting student vulnerabilities: "Although companies that collect, sell, analyze, and buy data may not
know children’s names (though they probably do), that hardly matters if
they have the information and tools necessary to model everything about
those children — including their interests, social networks,
personalities, vulnerabilities, desires, and aspirations — and if they
have personalized access to children, via their electronic devices, to
shape them." The report also observes that Americans are, “to some extent being socialized to
ignore and tacitly accept the collection, organization, and sale of
information about us”: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/answer-sheet/wp/2016/05/17/schools-are-now-soft-targets-for-companies-to-collect-data-and-market-to-kids-report/
"Educated consumers make the best customers."
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