There is a Lack of Privacy on the Web.

Note: This column is advisory, and must not be construed as giving any legal advice. However, it should alert teachers so that they may ask for guidance from their principals and their districts' legal department.

School Assignments

When completing school assignments, it is not a good idea for students to post personal information about themselves on Web pages. Anyone with access to the Web can access this private information. If students post personal information as part of a classroom exercise, parents may hold the teacher responsible for any consequences--which can range from advertising solicitations to harassment and worse. Even pages meant only for students in a particular class must be loaded with caution. Pages without direct links to them can be accessed by anyone making an intelligent guess or typographical error. Therefore, teachers should never require their students to include personal information on Web assignments. Text-only or pages with minimal graphics can be kept on disks or C: drives--C: drives theoretically have room for more graphics--and read on browsers (links to pages off the page will work); so there are viable options for creating pages and not posting them to the world at large.

Students Visiting Sites

Teachers must be aware that Web sites that ask viewers for information do exist. The types of information students are asked to provide when visiting sites can be quite personal. Name, address (exact and city/state), age, number of family members, income, etc., are only some of the types of questions that parents may prefer to keep private. Therefore, privacy should be a major concern in the classroom, especially in the K-12 years, and teachers should be sensitive to these situations when requiring students to visit Web sites.

Children's Online Privacy Protection Act 

Based on the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act, the Federal Trade Commission has created rules for "commercial Web sites and online services directed to, or that knowingly collect information from, children under 13." The rule became effective April 20, 2000. The Commission also wrote a document, How to Comply with the Children's Online Privacy Protection Rule, (available on the Web) which states that anyone who "collects personal information from children ... must comply with the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act" (paragraph 3). Teachers may find this document a useful way to determine which sites to recommend to their young students because it identifies such things as required privacy notices and the content thereof. Parents are to be notified when a site "wishes to collect personal information from [a] child" (paragraph 17). The consent must be verifiable.

The Federal Trade Commission's New Rule Will Protect Privacy of Children Online (October 20, 1999), states that the "Federal Register notice accompanying the rule makes clear that schools can act as parents' agents or as intermediaries between Web sites and parents in the notice and consent process" (paragraph 14). Thus, according to this source, teachers can be involved in the process. However, teachers don't appear to be expressly mentioned in the Final Rule (16 CRF Part 312, November 3, 1999), so they should inquire about local policies regarding the acquisition of parental consent.

Why the Act

There are Web sites that ask for personal information in the interests of marketing, and "[c]hildren surfing the Web are especially susceptible to fun-looking sites that request information about their families" (Chapman, 150). What the marketer does with this information is not necessarily known. How will it be used? Will it be sold? If sold, to whom? Will it be posted somewhere? The November 6, 1998 issue of CQ Researcher has a long article that discusses issues related to privacy and the Web. It shows charts that excerpt information from Privacy Online: A Report to Congress that indicate:

?? 92% of "Web sites collect personal information from online consumers, and most collect several types of information, such as name, address, Social Security number and birth date" (956).

?? Very few Web sites--only 14%--"that collect personal information tell consumers who is collecting the information and how it will be used" (957).

?? "Nearly 90 percent of the Web sites targeted at children collect personal information from children, but nearly half don't provide information-disclosure statements" (966).

These numbers should be a concern for teachers who have Web access in their classrooms, especially those with younger students, because they are probably going to seek out or have suggested to them sites written for children. Informing students and parents about the existence of these information-gathering sites is critical, so a workable comfort level can be reached.

K-12 teachers should probably read the Federal Trade Commission's Privacy Online: A Report to Congress for details about privacy on commercial sites. Section V. "Survey of Commercial Web Sites"--C. "Children's Survey Findings," and the endnotes have pertinent information about what the commission found on sites aimed at children. Other sections of the document may be of interest as well.

In Conclusion

Forewarned is forearmed when it comes to searching the Web. It can't hurt to be wary and to warn students to use caution when accessing the Web for information or entertainment. Advertisements and commercial Web pages are increasing in number--and in cleverness. Privacy of personal information needs to be guarded, or if given up, given up knowingly. I warn my students about the lack of privacy on the Internet. I recommend for all teachers to give similar warnings to their students--even to the point of having a classroom policy about providing information, if necessary. In the K-12 grades, parents need to be made aware of the lack of privacy so they can discuss the family comfort level with their children.

References

Chapman, Fern Schumer. PC Worm Aug. 1997: 145-52.

Part III. Federal Trade Commission. "16 CFR Part 312 Children's Online Privacy Protection Rule; Final Rule." Federal Register 3 Nov. 1999: 59887-59915.

Federal Trade Commission. How to Comply with the Children's Online Privacy Protection Rule. Nov. 1999. 31 Jan. 2000.

Federal Trade Commission. New Rule Will Protect Privacy of Children Online. 20 Oct. 1999. 31 Jan. 2000. <http://www.ftc.gov/opa/ 1999/9910/childfinal.htm>.

Federal Trade Commission. Privacy Online: A Report to Congress. June 1998. 31 Jan. 2000. <http://www.ftc.gov/reports/privacy3/toc.htm>.

Naomi Lederer Colorado State University 

<[e-mail]>