In “Hijacked Homework,” we peel back the curtain on the hidden data‑mines lurking in today’s classroom tech—from free‑tier badge apps to AI‑powered tutor bots—showing how every click, screenshot and smart‑board swipe can be turned into a surveillance snack. Sudo walks you through the legal maze (FERPA, COPPA, GDPR) and hands you a toolbox of low‑cost, high‑impact counter‑measures so parents can keep their kids’ learning private and their grades… well, actually just the grades.
Chapters:
- Intro and The WhatsApp Suit: Discusses the “gold‑star” badge trap that turns a harmless math app into a data‑harvesting machine. Along with an update on WhatsApp.
- Class is in Session: Dissects ClassDojo’s free tier, revealing the staggering amount of student metadata it hoards indefinitely.
- LMS: Explains how Learning Management Systems act as massive data lakes, aggregating everything from names to social‑security numbers.
- ISPs: Shows how school‑wide internet contracts turn every click into a granular traffic log, turning ordinary Wi‑Fi into a surveillance ledger.
- Tutor Apps: Highlights the privacy trade‑offs in popular tutoring platforms like Khan Academy, especially after the rollout of Khanmigo.
- Legally Speaking: Walks through the patchwork of student‑privacy laws—FERPA, COPPA, GDPR, and their global cousins—clarifying what protection actually exists.
- The Impractical Parent: Offers a pragmatic checklist (burner devices, VPNs, paper opt‑outs, data‑deletion requests, contract advocacy) to reclaim classroom privacy.
- Weekly Recap and Outro: Summarizes the five surveillance layers and reminds listeners that each has a lever they can pull.
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