Many students in Frisco ISD have raised concerns about why educational sites have been blocked on the school-issued Chromebooks, and the reason is not simply because the school wants to do it. It’s because of privacy issues.
First, let’s talk about how websites make money. Websites either have you pay a subscription fee to use their platform through having a membership, selling advertisement places, or they steal your information and sell it, all to generate money. They do this by using cookies, or pixels, which allow them to track your activity. Websites and businesses can use your information for their benefit and specific algorithm or they can sell it.
This is why Texas placed The SCOPE (Student Online Privacy Protection) Act, according to the state, the act claims to protect minors from “harmful content and data collection practices.” This is the reason why so many sites are blocked. If the website refuses to comply with the act, they are not allowed to be accessed on the school Chromebooks, for privacy reasons. This law limits which websites can be accessed by minors.
That’s why these educational websites that seem harmless are banned on the Chromebooks as they steal your personal information. While it may seem that the school district is overreacting by blocking all these websites, many of these websites collect data from the users who visit their sites, including minors. Their system steals how students interact on the internet or sell this data to other companies.
However, not all blocked websites on the Chromebook are blocked because of the SCOPE Act. Some of these sites are simply blocked to stop distractions and create work efficiency in the school environment.
In this day and age, where everything is moving online, students and parents need to have a good understanding of the safety of their online information. These restrictions may seem inconvenient and unnecessary, but they are all placed upon us to ensure our safety and privacy.
