I’m a high school senior at Brooklyn Center in Minneapolis, and a student activist working with the ACLU of Minnesota to fight for issues I care about.
I started thinking seriously about my own privacy and safety when I first learned of a 16-year-old New Jersey student who was interrogated by her high school administration after she tweeted political statements. Then I heard about team coaches monitoring student athletes’ private accounts – even requiring them to hand over social media passwords in order to join school teams.
As someone who believes young people should be able to express themselves without fear, this deeply worries me. That’s why I signed on to #TakeCTRL of my data privacy: social media is a crucial tool in my activism. Will you join me?
I wondered if other high school students were as concerned as I am, so I conducted a few Twitter polls and heard back from several hundred peers around the country! What I learned was truly shocking: more than 75% of the kids who responded to my poll know someone who’s been disciplined at school for stuff they’ve posted outside of school. And 60% said their phones were confiscated and searched by school officials without their permission.
With so few laws protecting our privacy rights on social media, or blocking access to our email and cell phone data, we have very little control over who can access our highly sensitive personal data and how they can use it.
Join me and thousands others pushing for new and stronger protections in states across the country.
There are so many ways we lose control over access to our data. At my sister’s school, students do homework on tablets that are distributed by the school. But in order to use the device, she had to consent to allow the school to access her data on the tablet even when she’s using it at home. That’s not right.
She and her classmates actually asked if they could opt out of using the tablets. The answer was no. But opting out is not really a good solution anyway. We shouldn’t have to choose between the technology that helps us learn and giving up all our rights to maintaining data privacy.
It’s time to have real choices over your privacy. Sign to #TakeCTRL.
I’m a high school senior at Brooklyn Center in Minneapolis, and a student activist working with the ACLU of Minnesota to fight for issues I care about.
I started thinking seriously about my own privacy and safety when I first learned of a 16-year-old New Jersey student who was interrogated by her high school administration after she tweeted political statements. Then I heard about team coaches monitoring student athletes’ private accounts – even requiring them to hand over social media passwords in order to join school teams.
As someone who believes young people should be able to express themselves without fear, this deeply worries me. That’s why I signed on to #TakeCTRL of my data privacy: social media is a crucial tool in my activism. Will you join me?
I wondered if other high school students were as concerned as I am, so I conducted a few Twitter polls and heard back from several hundred peers around the country! What I learned was truly shocking: more than 75% of the kids who responded to my poll know someone who’s been disciplined at school for stuff they’ve posted outside of school. And 60% said their phones were confiscated and searched by school officials without their permission.
With so few laws protecting our privacy rights on social media, or blocking access to our email and cell phone data, we have very little control over who can access our highly sensitive personal data and how they can use it.
Join me and thousands others pushing for new and stronger protections in states across the country.
There are so many ways we lose control over access to our data. At my sister’s school, students do homework on tablets that are distributed by the school. But in order to use the device, she had to consent to allow the school to access her data on the tablet even when she’s using it at home. That’s not right.
She and her classmates actually asked if they could opt out of using the tablets. The answer was no. But opting out is not really a good solution anyway. We shouldn’t have to choose between the technology that helps us learn and giving up all our rights to maintaining data privacy.
It’s time to have real choices over your privacy. Sign to #TakeCTRL.
I’m a high school senior at Brooklyn Center in Minneapolis, and a student activist working with the ACLU of Minnesota to fight for issues I care about.
I started thinking seriously about my own privacy and safety when I first learned of a 16-year-old New Jersey student who was interrogated by her high school administration after she tweeted political statements. Then I heard about team coaches monitoring student athletes’ private accounts – even requiring them to hand over social media passwords in order to join school teams.
As someone who believes young people should be able to express themselves without fear, this deeply worries me. That’s why I signed on to #TakeCTRL of my data privacy: social media is a crucial tool in my activism. Will you join me?
I wondered if other high school students were as concerned as I am, so I conducted a few Twitter polls and heard back from several hundred peers around the country! What I learned was truly shocking: more than 75% of the kids who responded to my poll know someone who’s been disciplined at school for stuff they’ve posted outside of school. And 60% said their phones were confiscated and searched by school officials without their permission.
With so few laws protecting our privacy rights on social media, or blocking access to our email and cell phone data, we have very little control over who can access our highly sensitive personal data and how they can use it.
Join me and thousands others pushing for new and stronger protections in states across the country.
There are so many ways we lose control over access to our data. At my sister’s school, students do homework on tablets that are distributed by the school. But in order to use the device, she had to consent to allow the school to access her data on the tablet even when she’s using it at home. That’s not right.
She and her classmates actually asked if they could opt out of using the tablets. The answer was no. But opting out is not really a good solution anyway. We shouldn’t have to choose between the technology that helps us learn and giving up all our rights to maintaining data privacy.
It’s time to have real choices over your privacy. Sign to #TakeCTRL.
I’m a high school senior at Brooklyn Center in Minneapolis, and a student activist working with the ACLU of Minnesota to fight for issues I care about.
I started thinking seriously about my own privacy and safety when I first learned of a 16-year-old New Jersey student who was interrogated by her high school administration after she tweeted political statements. Then I heard about team coaches monitoring student athletes’ private accounts – even requiring them to hand over social media passwords in order to join school teams.
As someone who believes young people should be able to express themselves without fear, this deeply worries me. That’s why I signed on to #TakeCTRL of my data privacy: social media is a crucial tool in my activism. Will you join me?
I wondered if other high school students were as concerned as I am, so I conducted a few Twitter polls and heard back from several hundred peers around the country! What I learned was truly shocking: more than 75% of the kids who responded to my poll know someone who’s been disciplined at school for stuff they’ve posted outside of school. And 60% said their phones were confiscated and searched by school officials without their permission.
With so few laws protecting our privacy rights on social media, or blocking access to our email and cell phone data, we have very little control over who can access our highly sensitive personal data and how they can use it.
Join me and thousands others pushing for new and stronger protections in states across the country.
There are so many ways we lose control over access to our data. At my sister’s school, students do homework on tablets that are distributed by the school. But in order to use the device, she had to consent to allow the school to access her data on the tablet even when she’s using it at home. That’s not right.
She and her classmates actually asked if they could opt out of using the tablets. The answer was no. But opting out is not really a good solution anyway. We shouldn’t have to choose between the technology that helps us learn and giving up all our rights to maintaining data privacy.
It’s time to have real choices over your privacy. Sign to #TakeCTRL.
Thanking you for taking action,
Mahad Olad for the ACLU Action team
