ALMOST 4 years ago the US passed a law -- without any public debate! -- that would formally turn GAFAM into corporate eyes of Five Eyes (which is now Six Eyes because Japan officially joined "the club").

"We must protect not only the dignity of youngsters but also their families'; they never explicitly consented to such abuse."Many people somehow think -- or have managed to convince themselves -- that it is perfectly normal to outsource schools/universities and their data to spy agencies. Thankfully, the likes of Dr. Andy Farnell stand in their way and persistently explain why this status quo should be rejected. Schools of all sorts should hire suitably trained people who know how to manage stuff such as E-mail (not sign some paperwork that sends it to spying companies) and can give students real skills, including the use of freedom-respecting software that does not harvest data (e.g. LaTeX/L^yX/Kile and LibreOffice instead of Google and Microsoft stuff). We've long argued that schools should also teach GemText or similar, not HTML, as the Web is a monopolised and overly complicated platform with DRM. It's not useful for education.

The video above adds some thoughts to Dr. Farnell's article. I've attempted to merely add some things which merit a mention; there are ethical -- not just financial -- considerations. We must protect not only the dignity of youngsters but also their families'; they never explicitly consented to such abuse. ⬆