Data Privacy Day and the Impact for the Future with Edudata.io

The history of Privacy Day goes back to the early 2000s. The idea of celebrating Data Privacy Day was born in 2006 when the Council of Europe's Data Protection Convention No. 108 was published for signature. Today, Privacy Day is celebrated internationally on January 28th around the world, and its purpose is to raise awareness of privacy and its associated rights and responsibilities.

For us, privacy is a way to live, and this year our privacy service is celebrating its fifth anniversary. At this time we have taken care of the privacy of hundreds of thousands of children and have affected the lives of over 2 million children and guardians. In addition, our work with privacy has had a wide impact across Europe, and its effects extend to the United States. Now we want to tell you more about what kind of footprint we have brought to the history of privacy and what we will do in the future.

Everyone has the right to privacy and data protection

Data protection is a fundamental right. This is what the European Union, the United Nations, the legislation of different countries, and educational curriculums say, and so do we at Edudata.io. Everyone has the right to process and understand their own personal data in all digital environments at work, school, hobbies, and in their own everyday lives, and its importance is increasingly emphasized in a digitized world.

The European Data Protection Supervisor has highlighted what rights the EU General Data Protection Regulation gives to each individual.

The right to see your own data
The right to correct your data
The right to delete your data
The right to restrict processing
The right to transfer data from one system to another
The right to object to processing
The right not to be subject to a decision based solely on automated processing.*

These rights are also the rights of every child and student in education. We are honored to be safeguarding and enabling the realization of these rights for every student through Edudata.io's GDPR DPIA service for education and the students' Privacy App.

The impact for children's privacy

Our important work with privacy affects over two million children and their guardians today in Finland, Sweden, Norway, and Estonia. But that's not enough for us, because we want to be the enabler of the future of European privacy and we are working tirelessly to ensure that we will also take care of the privacy of the other 100 million European students in the future.

The impacts of our work on individuals' lives are seen in the strong increase in general awareness of privacy. For example, students and guardians are increasingly aware of the risks in digital environments and are able and understand to demand the fulfillment of their rights in education privacy from educational organizations and, if necessary, from authorities, which have also activated the Data Protection Authorities of the countries. In addition, the impact has widened outside of education and the same privacy practices are being implemented even in people’s everyday lives.

Edudata.io is a unique service that makes the impossible possible. With the help of the Privacy App, students and guardians can see how the school and third-party applications use, process, and store students' personal data. In addition, students can see which applications are safe to use when the school has reviewed the applications in accordance with the law and analyzed the data protection risks together with Edudata.io's privacy specialists.

The impact for data erasure

One important right in privacy is the right to data deletion. This has not always been an obvious thing, and people's data can be found even from over 15 years ago, even though this should no longer be allowed to happen under the law.

We have enabled data deletion and ensured that at least the personal data in education is deleted correctly and on time. This way, every student can start their career fresh way regardless of where their data has been in education and what kind of digital identity has been formed in the digital world during school years.

The Impact for Edtech

We have a strong game changer in the development of digital services across Europe. Over the years, our Privacy specialists have provided Risk and Impact Assessments of over 4,000 applications that are used in education.

The impact is strong, not only for the European Edtech industry but also because of the Edudata.io’s impact wave, even American companies have had to change the way they handle personal data in their systems. Digital service providers have become aware that if possible risks are identified in Edudata.io's risk assessments, the service will not be used in education. In addition, the effects are not limited to the digital services used in education, but the effects are also reflected in the consumer services and business world.

The Impact for Europe

We are making an impact on the future of Europe, where data breaches, fraud, and other threats are becoming more common due to the growing role and development of artificial intelligence (AI).

We are ensuring that the whole of Europe is compliant with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and we are preparing the education field to address the new risks and threats posed by AI in a preventive and appropriate manner.

As we mentioned earlier, the strengthening of awareness has also encouraged authorities and Data Protection Authorities in different countries to take action to ensure data protection. For example, the Data Protection Authorities in Sweden and Iceland have imposed fines of 10,000-30,000 euros on cities and municipalities for failing to comply with data protection in education.

Happy Data Protection Day to Everyone!

Inspired by Data Protection Day which is celebrated on the 28th of January, we want to emphasize the importance of data protection and remind you how important the right to data protection is, especially when talking about children and students. We want to encourage people to learn about the security that data protection provides in preventing risks and encourage everyone to demand the realization of their rights, especially in education. In addition, we encourage every school and everyone working with children to raise the discussion about the protection of children's privacy and data in their workplace.

Sources:
Edudata.io
European Data Protection Supervisor
Council of Europe