Educational games used by governments violate LGPD

Thousands of Brazilian students attend school without knowing that every online choice, application use, message sending may be under monitoring. You games e ludic apps of educational technology contribute with data that form a student profile. Harassment by marketing companies to children and adolescents ranges from cell phone ads to personalized messages and violates the LGPD (General Data Protection Law).

Access to these tools is determined by who should protect students, what government, through their education departments. “There is an additional danger when we talk about public spaces and the data collect with these systems, it becomes something massive, so we are not talking about individual problems but about large education platforms, with audiences of thousands or millions of people, extremely valuable data”, says Tel Amiel, professor at the Faculty of Education at the University of Brasilia and Coordinator of the UNESCO Chair in EaD at UnB.

O “Students, not Products” report (“Students, Not Products”) of the advocacy organization human rights international Human Rights Watch reverberated in 2022 in the Brazil pointing out technology platforms that profit from student data. Tools that were purchased and are used in Brazilian public schools by the government. The study pointed out the platforms Centro de Mídias da Educação de São Paulo, from the Secretary of State for Education of São Paulo; Study at Home, by the State Department of Education of Minas Gerais; Descomplica, Dragon Learn, Escola Mais, explicaê, Manga High, Stoodi and Revista Enem, resources used by public schools on the specific recommendation of managers and teachers.

Two other studies by the CGI (Brazilian Internet Management Committee), released in September e November 2022, bring an even broader picture of the surveillance to students. THE platforming of schools, a movement that started even during the pandemic, is the name given to the tendency of schools to increasingly seek platforms from big techs like Google, Apple and edtech (education and technology) companies to put all the students' lessons, activities and much more.

One of the greatest examples of this trend was part of the 2022 presidential election campaign. the use of Grapho Game, an educational game for literacy, was presented as a solution for Brazilian education, which generated several reactions. For this report, we contacted experts and companies related to the edtech market to understand a little more about the platformization of education, in addition to using the LAI (Access to Information Law) for specific research.

Grapho Game and Platformization with Google

O Grapho Game is a game created in Finland in the context of research on neurolinguistics. “It was created for children dyslexic and not for the purpose of literacy general,” says Nelson Pretto, a professor at the Federal University of Bahia (UFBA). Adapted for Brazil by PUC-RS, it was presented to the MEC by Augusto Buchweitz, a professor at InsCer (Instituto do Cérebro), a specialist in child development and adviser to the CNE (Conselho Nacional de Educação do MEC). Buchweitz is currently a professor of psychology at the University of Connecticut.

Using Grapho Game requires downloading the installation file. Once installed on Android, iOS or Windows PCs, it does not require registration. “This is very important because it does not collect data from students”, says Aline Fay, professor at the School of Humanities at PUCRS, neurolinguist and researcher at InsCer. However, considering that 80,5% of the cell phone market in Brazil is Android (StatCounter), most installations use a Google account. This is not, however, the path adopted by PUC-RS itself. “We use Android tablets in the schools we researched, with accounts that do not identify the students and who are brought back to the university and the collected data is removed when necessary”, says Aline Fay.

For the use of the Grapho Game in Brazil, the MEC reported that, over the years 2020 to 2022, R$1.746.505,69 for the application's public service advertising campaigns. The amount paid to PUC-RS to make the application available in 2021 was R$100.500,00🇧🇷 and in the year 2022, BRL 174.000,00. The data were obtained via LAI (Access to Information Law). In another request about MEC purchases in the government of former Minister Milton Ribeiro, there is a monthly payment to the Brazilian Education Union, related to the Grapho Game.

O care of PUC-RS researchers did not translate into the wide use of the application scale of video games by MEC. In the presidential debate of the 2022 elections, Jair Bolsonaro even claimed that the app could teach a child to read and write without the teacher in record time of six months. As for teacher Aline Fay, “it is important to have a teacher who is the partner of the student in the learning journey”. Priscila Cruz, from Todos pela Educação, was incisive regarding the free use of the application for literacy: “it is a wrong path, unscientific".

Three European Union countries have already restricted the use of Big Techs tools in the classroom. THE France, through its Ministry of Education, recommended in november that Google Workspace and even free Microsoft Office 365 tools should not be used in schools. The concern is with compliance with the European GDPR (General Data Protection Act). THE Germany also vetoed the use of Microsoft Office 365 in September with the same allegations. THE Denmark, in July, had already banned the use of all Google products, such as Workspace and Chromebooks, in schools.

Stoodi and the use of keyloggers and basic customization of the Media Center

The biggest problem with the use of games and platforms for education is the inability of governments and teachers to understand exactly what can happen with the collection of student data. “These risks range from violation of privacy of students, teachers and even family members, who are exposed when video class cameras capture people's privacy, indoors. Undergo ethical issues important to the sale and assignment of these people's data to third parties for commercial purposes and even arbitrary surveillance“, said Marielza Oliveira from UNESCO at the launch of the first CGI study.

In the specific case of Stoodi, the Human Rights Watch report noted the use of a keylogger (keystroke logger), a technology that records all data typed by the user on the cell phone and forwards it to the portal of an online advertising company. Priscila Gonsales, from the Educadigital Institute, coordinator of the CGI studies, also indicates the low customization of the São Paulo Media Center. “The material is from an IPTV company, through its IPTV School platform, and only the logo. was changed to the Media Center”, says the researcher.

The MEC representative present at the debate to launch the study, André Castro, recognizes that Big Techs solutions are ubiquitous in the market of education and technology, “market competition with State It's unfair," he says. “The MEC today thinks about a strategy of education digital to dialogue with different actors”, he adds.

When it comes to educational products for children and teenager, the MEC is aware of the need for more care, “on the question of the highest bar for this public, in theory the LGPD already treats this data differently, based on how these users will interact with the solution”, says Castro. “The child does not have the perception or discernment that his data is being used”, completes the specialist. “When you have solutions that will interact with children, you have to have a differentiated work on the interface”, he concludes.

Necessary care from the development to the choice of educational games

The choice of educational games it must be surrounded by care, from the development of your choice, “you need to know them, and like any application, know what is behind them, what data they collect”, says professor and developer Francisco Tupy. Author of the “North for Science” application, the teacher recommends games as a way to enhance education, especially with the arrival of 5G.

“In Brazil, we stumbled upon the formation of teachers to use games and managers of schools they also have to know what they are, they have to read about it, just like their parents”, says Tupy. As a developer, Tupy states that it is necessary to have a vision ethics in the construction of the game, “I made a product aimed at students who want to participate in scientific projects and it was important to build it so as not to collect data from students”.

Ethical criteria are at the top of the list for choosing organizations, as explained by Ana Paula Gaspar, specialist in educational technology and who has already participated in evaluation of applications for CIEB (Innovation Center for Brazilian Education), a non-profit association that works with the public education Brazilian. O the project, carried out in 2019, aimed to guide secretariat managers to Good shopping and had a partnership with the Federal University of Alagoas (UFAL) to establish evaluation criteria.

“Of more than 100 edtechs that signed up on the CIEB platform, only 9 went through the sieve of the evaluators”, says Gaspar. "THE Safety of the students' data was one of the criteria”, he recalls. Of the 9 approved, only one was a startup at the time. “The concern with data is a legal requirement and many edtech startups are born without thinking about it”, says the specialist. “Administrators and teachers should seek references techniques to support your choice of technologies for the classroom, there are several publications that guide in this direction”, he adds.

“It is urgent to talk about LGPD (General Data Protection Law) and games in school, because the school is not separated from the society, the advance of games in a more coherent way already exists and networks and educators need to commit themselves, think about their role in this process”, says Gabriel Maia Salgado, project coordinator at Instituto Alana. The organization mapped the growth of technology use in school during the pandemic.

“It is necessary to look punitive games, quite the opposite. We want to identify, as a society, how we can be committed to the best use possible”, says Salgado. “There is a central point: it takes a commitment from the government to be a promoter and regulator of the use of digital resources with families and companies, in addition, it is possible to look at the creation of games that promote autonomy, including encouraging children and adolescents to create their own games”, he explains.

Thinking of games and playful platforms as collection instruments is something totally contrary to the very nature of games, as Paula Carolei, doctor in design and educational games, explains. “It is important to think about what we use the data, if they are used only to control the student, this is very bad”, he says. “The game is for making mistakes, experimenting, not containing errors or compare results, the data must return to the student so that he improves his choices and strategies”, he adds. “We have to overcome this logic, which makes games something very reactive like in the Grapho Game, and there are even games in public schools that make people see advertisements, even from governments, to win prizes”, he protests.

No BIG Festival (Games Independentes Brasileiros), there is a search for representatives of municipalities and states who want to learn more about education and games, says Professor Jean Rafael Tomceac, who also participates in the organization of the specific space in the event's audience 5 years ago. “Including a parliamentary front in the ALESP in 2021, the topic was discussed, just as Grapho Game was discussed in a public hearing, and it was pointed out by both teachers and developers present that the game had no context for Brazil”, points out Tomceac.

Um mapping of vacancies edtechs (education and technology companies) showed that companies are not ready to hire professionals who work with data and education. Caio Dib, educational technology consultant, periodically publishes vacancies on Linkedin (it has already reached more than 10.000) and carried out a mapping with more than 180 vacancies and professionals available throughout Brazil. Only one of the vacancies was related to data and privacy and it was a course coordination vacancy.

"The game in education there has also always been the challenge of being something cool, most of it is quite boring”, comments Caio. “This causes many schools and teachers to opt for commercial games, such as Minecraft”, indicates. “We have several technologies that we do not reflect on privacy and we always use at school, such as WhatsApp, you need to have debates about it,” he adds.

“We really need a change attitude in relation to the games”, says teacher Paula Carolei. “What has been sold as game it's much closer to tests interactive games and evaluations, when in commercial games there are much more possibilities”, he explains. “Exploring a theme, discovering clues, can be a great educational game and there are several ways to create something like this”, points out the teacher. None of these ways, however, should involve the data collect excessive. “So much for the age of the public, that the LGPD already determines that it should not be a target, such as the lack of permission for collections and the possibility of opting out of participating, it is a very bad habit that must be abandoned”, says Tel Amiel, professor at UnB.

Sources:

• Students, not Products report
• Study Education in a scenario of platformization and data economy: problems and concepts
• Study Education in a scenario of platformization and data economy: partnerships and asymmetries

*This agenda was included in the 4th Public Notice of Education Journalism, an initiative by Jeduca (Association of Education Journalists) in partnership with Itaú Social.