App shows data profile
A NEW educational app is helping kids protect their privacy online by showing what happens to the data they share on popular social media platforms.
The FriendSend app aims to help young social media users navigate the challenges of developing a digital identity and managing personal data.
Project lead Dr Luci Pangrazio, from Deakin University’s Centre for Research for Educational Impact (REDI) in the School of Education, enlisted the help of students from Bellbrae Primary School to develop the app and ensure its functionality.
“The students helped us design and name the app,” she said. “They also took part in the trial and feedback stage, together with primary school students from the Escuela Primaria Urbana in Uruguay.
“Young people generate large amounts of personal data through their use of social media and we need them to better understand the risks and opportunities associated with social media use.
“Personal data is now routinely used to profile and predict behaviour with the implications shaping young people’s social and educational futures and, potentially, lifelong spending and lifestyle behaviours.”
FriendSend aggregates data such as chat, images and geolocations generated through social media sites and processes it using commercial data mining techniques and tools.
This personal data collection and processing is normally hidden from users but the FriendSend app allows these processes to be visible to teachers and students. “A critical understanding of social media requires an understanding of the ‘back end’ – or infrastructure of digital technology – particularly the way personal data, algorithms and automation mediate interactions and the circulation of content,” Dr Pangrazio said.
Use of the app is complemented by three workshops that develop understandings of social media, digital identities and personal data, as well as how to manage and protect privacy online.
Bellbrae Primary teacher Lauren White worked on the FriendSend app with her Grade 4 students last year.
“The Data Smart Kids program helped our Grade 4 students learn even more about their personal online data, how apps track and process locations and images, and how the students can protect their privacy online – and why they should,” Ms White said.
“The workshops were fun and interesting, and the chat app provided a safe and handson experience to introduce students to communicating via social media.”
Both FriendSend and the Teacher Guide and PowerPoint can be accessed at en.datasmartkids.com. Teachers need to contact the researchers through the link to get a school code.