Giving Compass' Take:

• The wide range of apps and services provided by Facebook include programs targeted for children and education, and these may be collecting information on young users. 

• What restrictions for children's privacy should technology companies be subject to? How does the responsibility for children's safety and privacy fall on parents, schools, and EdTech companies?

• Keep these concerns in mind as you consider the next round of tools for EdTech.

Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook’s founder and CEO, spent over four hours testifying in front of the Senate. The leader of the social media giant, with over 2 billion active users, answered questions about data ownership and usage.

Messenger Kids

Facebook has come under fire for a messenger app it released for kids younger than age 13 (who cannot make Facebook profiles).

Senator Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) brought up concerns that health experts have warned Zuckerberg about, and asked him what guarantees he could give that no data from Messenger Kids “is or will be collected or shared with those that might violate the law.”

Third-Party Edtech Apps on Facebook

Do education apps such as Quizlet that allow users to create accounts via Facebook also collect data on users? How much data is collected, where is the data stored, and who can access it?

It’s hard to say as the Facebook CEO consistently gave obscure answers such questions from lawmakers. Zuckerberg only noted that the company clamped down on the amount of data collected by app developers in 2014.

Read the full article on Mark Zuckerberg’s Senate testimony by Jenny Abamu and Tina Nazerian at EdSurge