In the wake of the pandemic, schools in the European Union have increasingly begun to implement digital services for online learning. While these modernisation efforts are a welcome development, a small number of big tech companies immediately tried to dominate the space – often with the intention of getting children used to their systems and creating a new generation of future “loyal” customers. One of them is Microsoft, whose 365 Education services violate children’s data protection rights. When pupils wanted to exercise their GDPR rights, Microsoft said schools were the “controller” for their data. However, the schools have no control over the systems.
Schools need to stop buying Microshit stuff. They help create a new generation of M$ drones.
Google operates the same way, and unfortunately individual schools don’t have the expertise to go open source. Needs to be a government program to host the open source solutions - could save heaps of money that way too.
B-but save money means no tax income. We all love tax income. We don’t want to lose tax income
What’s the alternative? Buying Chromebooks and creating a generation of Google drones?
Linux (TuxedoComputers, slimbook, starlabsystems, …), Nextcloud/Owncloud, LibreOffice, GCompris, etc.
inb4 “impossible”: wrong, Kerala is a great example of how that works
inb4 “not western”: a German secondary school is another example.
This article seems to have a bizarre assumption all the way through that the schools must use Microsoft 365.
Obviously Microsoft is failing morally and probably legally (what else is new), but the schools also have a moral and legal requirement to choose software which protects the rights of the children. Microsoft is sort of right in the way they surely didn’t mean; schools have the responsibility to not use Microsoft 365.
Microsoft 365 is the easy solution. Schools usually don’t have the people and/or the Know-how to implement alternative, well working, solutions.
If it doesn’t fulfill the requirements it’s not any kind of solution
