Technology has the unique power to influence and transform how we teach and learn.
While the use of cloud services opens up countless opportunities for students, it also opens up a range of potential issues, from government access to data, to vendor access and use of data.
In everything we do in the education sector, we are guided by the principle that student safety and privacy rights must come first. It is for this reason that Microsoft was one of the first companies to commit to the Student Privacy Pledge in the United States.
This commitment serves to ensure that providers of education services or content do not collect or use student data for targeted advertising or the development of marketing profiles of students. Office 365 was the first major cloud productivity service that made commitments not to use student data for advertising purposes or for any purpose other than providing educational services.
We have long believed that students, parents, educators and school leaders should have confidence in knowing that companies will use school children’s data exclusively for appropriate learning purposes. This is fundamental to every engagement that Microsoft has with students in Australia and around the world. Every student deserves a quality education and should have access to all the tools necessary to be prepared for the future.
Pip Marlow, Managing Director, Microsoft Australia
