Devices such as the Amazon Echo or Alexa and Google Home are designed for consumer use and therefore may pose security issues when used in schools. Voice assistants do not have service agreements or privacy policies and are not COPPA compliant, which raises legal implications for the K-12 education market. Federal and state guidance is vague on this subject. Do Voice Assistants Belong in the Classroom? Despite these warnings, if educators are using voice assistants they should: • Check district polices on classroom use of voice assistants • Know state and federal student privacy laws • Get parent permission • Manage device privacy settings
For more information and helpful tips check out: The Voice Assistant Device in Your Classroom ‘Alexa, Do You Belong in the Classroom?’ Safety and privacy do’s and don’ts with voice-activated technology
Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos confirmed in May, as a response to Senator Chris Cons (D-Delaware) ,that Amazon, as well as third parties that deploy skills on the Alexa platform, retain customers’ voice recordings and transcripts until the customer chooses to delete them. The companymay keep records of customer interactions for as long as they want.
“Amazon Confirms It Keeps Your Alexa Recordings Basically Forever”
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Comptroller’s Corner
The Office of the Comptroller conducted six Information Technology audits since June 2019. The results demonstrate a clear need for districts to address sensitive IT controls and to provide cybersecurity training for staff. Out of the five districts audited: • One district did not manage PPSI data properly. • Two districts did not disable, remove or update unecessary user accounts. • Employees were using computers for personal use and visiting personal sites in three districts. This could be a violation of the district Acceptable Use Policy. • Five out of six districts did not provide cybersecurity awareness training to employees • All six districtswereadvisedconfidentiallyonsensitive information technology (IT) Control Weaknesses
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