But many asked to download an attendance app on their mobile phones that can track their location – adding to heavy surveillance measures in the capital’s schools, which critics say violate the privacy of students and staff. .
With city officials warning that their pay will be withheld if they fail to comply, teachers are fighting back. Vibha Singh, a senior vice president of the Municipal Corporation Teachers’ Association, said, “We were not consulted on this app, we were not told about its features – we were just sent a link and asked to download it on our mobile phones. was ordered.” (NNSS) Teachers Association.
After several complaints, the union filed suit in the city’s high court last month, arguing that the app violated their privacy. The next hearing is on September 27.
“These are our private phones, and the app tracks our location at all times. We don’t know what other information it can access, or who has access to the data – what if it gets hacked? Women teachers are particularly at risk,” Singh said.
Even before the app was launched, some public schools in Delhi had closed circuit television (CCTV) cameras with facial recognition technology, a measure digital rights advocates have denounced as “overreach”.
According to estimates by technology website Comparitech, India’s capital is one of the most surveyed cities in the world, with more than 1,800 cameras per square mile – the highest concentration globally.
An official of the South Delhi Municipal Corporation (SDMC), which is a defendant in the teachers union’s lawsuit, said the app only logs teachers’ attendance and does not pose any privacy or security risk.
Muktmay Mandal, deputy director of education at SDMC, said, “It is a misconception that the app can compromise their privacy. We have had several conversations with teachers to explain the app and allay their fears.”
“We are moving towards increased digitization in every field – we are downloading so many apps everyday. If they have nothing to hide, then what is there to be afraid of?” He told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.
increasing pushback
Digital rights experts say the coronavirus pandemic has prompted governments and corporations to introduce a wide range of health and safety-based technologies that can track people, some with privacy safeguards.
Increasingly, workers are pushing against what they see as a violation of their rights.
Municipal employees in the north Indian city of Chandigarh protested last year against GPS-enabled tracking smartwatches that were required to be worn with data linked to performance ratings and salaries.
Earlier this year, thousands of government-accredited community health workers – mostly women – protested against a mobile app that they said tracked their location and recorded their performance.
As with attendance apps, tracking and accessing data does not justify the level of monitoring as a means to log attendance, said Anushka Jain, associate counsel at the Internet Freedom Foundation, a digital rights group in Delhi.
“There’s no need to track them all day; that’s surveillance. It’s very problematic that these apps and technologies are being forced on people without any data protection guidelines.”
“We are seeing a growing push not only about the right to privacy, but also because the abuse of these technologies is so rampant and people understand that the worst-case scenario is not just imaginary, it is highly likely,” she said. .
A long-delayed personal data protection bill that aims to create a framework for what types of data can be collected, and how it is collected, processed and stored, would impose penalties for misuse of any personal data .
But there are many exceptions to the draft bill, especially for government agencies, Jain said.
School principal Singh said, in Delhi, school teachers previously used biometrics machines or logged on to the website to register their attendance, but these options have been replaced by the app.
Many teachers who failed to download the app had their salaries withheld, Singh said, adding that the requirement was problematic even in homes with only a smartphone that can be used by other family members during the day. .
“If we must use this app, give us separate devices that we can use for attendance and other school functions,” she said.
“Then we can drop the device off at school, and know it’s not tracking us. We don’t mind that.”
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