Thread by @defenddigitalme

Earlier today, we posted a thread of what happened after Michael Gove announced plans to open up the National Pupil Database for commercial re-use ten years ago on November 6th, 2012

https://twitter.com/defenddigitalme/status/1589156977586089987?s=20&t=A3SjzyXfprDw6SnK0DOr2w

But let’s also remember what happened before then, starting in 2002. 1/10

Twenty years ago the then Lab. government decided to add names to create pupil-level records for the first time in the formerly aggregated school-level census (as still mostly done in private schools). news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/education… Terri Dowty was on the ball from the start. 2/10

Many could foresee the surveillance it would become, while (2002) DfE staff said, “The data would be stored securely, no data would be copied to other organisations without a clear need and data would not be used for marketing purposes or sold to private companies”. 3/10

(2002) "we will be able to see how programmes can be developed and improved to target more effectively the needs of specific groups of children such as ethnic minorities." Fast forward to 2015 and use for immigration enforcement began in secret. defenddigitalme.org/my-school-reco… 4/10 #data

Academics proposed regulatory actions for the ICO in 2006 in the report Children’s Databases – Safety and Privacy, to ensure UK children’s data handling should became compliant and on parity with EU peers #DataProtection #Privacy and #HumanRights law academia.edu/13490126/Child… 5/10

So in 2012, it was unsurprising that the Gove consultation proposals were widely rejected by many. But it went ahead anyway. Owen Boswarva @owenboswarva wrote up one of the best summaries with links to the responses he obtained via FOI at that time owenboswarva.com/blog/archive/m… 6/10

Right from the start, there was no intention to tell parents. @owenboswarva wrote, “There appears to have been no concerted effort to bring the consultation or the NPD initiative to the attention of parents or #pupils (i.e. the data subject themselves).” 7/10 He quoted a parent.

The DfE knew in a 2013 ppt, exactly how *identifying* and sensitive these millions of #PupilData would be after release without audit or safeguards. This was no “blunder” as headlined by today’s Telegraph re the ICO reprimand. It was policy by design. web.archive.org/web/2020070911… 8/10

Despite campaigning from Dowty and Booth among others, still the policy went ahead—and a decade on dear Mr Gove, dear #Education Ministers—the foreseeable disaster is realised, and must be redesigned. scribd.com/document/12563… 9/10 Audio via infiniteideasmachine.com/2013/04/terris… #DataProtection

Today if you can, please help us make the change we need and support our legal action with a donation, or share. DfE can still choose to put children's rights first, and make #data safe, fair, and transparent /10

https://twitter.com/defenddigitalme/status/1589172633819840512?s=20&t=albgZvHim7uO9UuQfyoAVQ

#HumanRights #DataProtection #LegalTwitter