Data mining an added distraction to students at school
Malaysia Chronicle (8 June 2013) There is growing concern that students using the Internet in class may be influenced by online advertisements received through a digital marketing strategy known as data mining. Data mining is when Internet service providers sell student information collated from online activity to cyber vendors. This results in the youngsters being targeted to receive specific advertisements when using the Internet for studies that could seriously interfere with the learning process. "It is not hard to imagine the risks involved when we give our privacy to someone else to keep. Aside from the more obvious reasons such as data being leaked or stolen, our children's data might be collected for target marketing, which will be a distraction to students who should be focused in class. "Digitalising education is an ambitious but much needed step to skill our students, and ultimately to reach a level that is on par with the developed world. But as with any change, we must be fully prepared for new responsibilities," said Parent Action Group for Education (Page) president Noor Azimah Abdul Rahim. She was speaking at a forum organised by CyberSecurity Malaysia yesterday which was aimed at finding ways to protect students' data privacy. The forum was organised in collaboration with CUTS Institute for Regulation and Competition and SafeGov.org. Among the projects to digitalise education that Noor Azimah referred to was the 1Bestarinet project, where schools nationwide are provided Internet access for educational purposes. CyberSecurity Malaysia outreach department head Rosly Yahil suggested a policy where Internet service providers sign a contract with schools to remove advertisement functions. "Students can still access advertisements on social networking and gaming sites at home, but not in school," he said. Rosly added that CyberSecurity was taking a new approach in spreading awareness in schools by training cyber safety "ambassadors". "Ambassadors can go out and educate not only students, but also parents and teachers on how to minimise the risk of data mining," he said. -AsiaOne Digital Source: http://www.malaysia-chronicle.com |
