Teachers have an important role into the personal data protection, especially in their role of educator in the safe usage of new technologies. During the 5th of October will be celebrated the International Teacher Day.
People devoted to the education, teachers, play an important role for the personal data protection in many aspects of their activity. On this 5th of October is celebrated the International Teacher Day, which celebrate the anniversary of the signature of the Opinion between IOT and UNESCO on the Staff Regulations of the Teaching Staff (1966). This opinion establishes landmarks for rights and responsibilities of teachers and standards for their initial training and during the service, the recruitment, employment and learning and teaching conditions.
The most important contributions of teachers related to personal data protection, especially in the first stages of learning, refer to the privacy education, rights and safe usage of new technologies.
The article 83 of the Organic Law on Personal Data and Guarantee of Digital Rights (LOPDGDD) includes the right to the digital education, by affirming that “the educational system must guarantee the full inclusion of students in the digital society and the learning of responsible consumption and a critical and safe use of digital media that respects human dignity”.
Within its social responsibility framework, the Spanish Data Protection Agency has developed several initiatives in line with the LOPDGD even before its approval. These include the different awareness-raising campaigns, the annual award for good educational practices on privacy and personal data protection (for which educational centers can still apply) and, in particular, the generation of educational materials that can be used by teachers in all educational phases.
On the other hand, teachers, due to their training activity, participate in the processing carried out in the educational centers where they carry out their teaching work. In this respect, teachers must pay particular attention to the publication of pupils’ photographs, videos or audio, the use of third-party applications or cloud services, and the communication tools used with parents and guardians.
The Agency recommends that, in case of doubt, teachers contact the Data Protection Officer of their educational center (private or subsidised centers) or the person designated by their autonomous community in the case of public educational centers.