Digital distance education
Digital distance education offers a lot of opportunities. Pupils and students can attend classes through online (video) calling. Examinations or tests can be taken at home with digital surveillance (online proctoring). But digital distance education may also constitute a significant invasion of privacy.
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This is why educational institutions have a great responsibility to handle the personal data of pupils, students and teachers with due care. The Dutch Data Protection Authority (Dutch DPA) provides educational institutions with a number of concrete recommendations to protect the privacy of their pupils or students and staff.
Quick answers
Is my school or university allowed to film me when I attend a distance class?
You can attend a class through video calling. When you do this, your educational institution may film you at home. This is an invasion of your privacy. But it is allowed when teaching in any other way is not possible. In that case, your school or university has to ensure that the invasion of your privacy is minimised.
For example, your school or university has to choose a software supplier that meets the requirements of the privacy law. Here it is particularly important that the supplier does not retain all data longer than necessary.
Your school or university also has to provide you (or your parents) with clear information about what exactly happens with your data, such as why your data are processed and when your data will be erased. Take a look at the privacy policy, for example. Or ask a teacher or an employee of your school or university.
Make sure that you keep things that are very personal to you outside the range of the camera as much as possible, such as things that have to do with your religion or political preference.
Is my school or university allowed to retain the images that were made during class?
Your school or university is not allowed to retain the images made during class through video calling if pupils or students are visible in them and if they do not have a good reason for retaining them.
Images without pupils or students
Your school or university is allowed to retain a recording of the class or the lecture without the interaction with pupils or students in it. An example of this is to be able to watch the class or lecture at a later time.
It is advisable here that your school or university indicates beforehand when the recording will start so that you will know when you have to turn off your microphone and camera.
Images with pupils or students
Only in exceptional situations will your school or university be allowed to retain images in which pupils and students can be recognised.
In that case, your school or university must have a good reason to do this. And recording the images must be necessary for that purpose, such as if interaction with pupils or students is an important component of the study material. Or if watching the images at a later time is necessary for the evaluation of the teachers.
The school or university has to explain clearly beforehand why retaining those images is necessary and how long the images need to be retained.
Erasing images
Does you school or university retain images in which you are visible, but do you not want this? Then you can ask for erasure of the images. Your educational institution will then decide if the images will be erased.
My school or university has asked me to install software to take a test or examination at home. Is that allowed?
Some schools and universities opt for software to conduct online surveillance (online proctoring). The question of whether your school or university is allowed to use online proctoring cannot simply be answered with yes or no. In any case, your school or university will have to meet strict requirements because online proctoring has a significant impact on your privacy.
Is proctoring necessary?
Firstly, your school or university will have to assess whether using proctoring is necessary.
Are there less intrusive ways of examining that also limit the chance of fraud? Then your school or university is not allowed to deploy proctoring. An alternative may be to have pupils or students submit a paper, an essay. or an open book examination.
Is proctoring indeed necessary? Then your school or university will have to ensure in any case that the invasion of your privacy is minimised.
More information
More requirements that your school or university has to meet can be found in Recommendations for online proctoring in education (in Dutch).