UN Committee Receives Rights Submission for Colombia

We write in advance of the 73rd pre-session of the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights ("the Committee"). We hope this submission will inform the Committee's preparation of its list of issues to seek further clarity on Colombia's compliance with the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR). This submission focuses on government-endorsed online learning during the Covid-19 pandemic, the right to free and compulsory education, and the protection of education from attack.

Government-Endorsed Online Learning During the Covid-19 Pandemic (article 13)

1. In a global investigation of education technology (EdTech) products endorsed by the world's most populous countries for children's education during the Covid-19 pandemic, Human Rights Watch found that Colombian authorities directly violated children's right to privacy and other rights.[1]
2. Human Rights Watch analyzed Aprender Digital, a website developed and launched by the Colombian Ministry of National Education on March 16, 2020 to provide students with digital educational content during Covid-19 school closures,[2] as well as seven other privately-built platforms recommended by the ministry: Dropbox, Edmodo, Jumpshare, Padlet, Remind, WeTransfer, and Workflowy.[3] Of these eight products, one was a mobile application ("app"), three were websites, and four were available in both formats.
3. Our analysis found that all eight EdTech products surveilled or had the capacity to surveil children online, outside school hours, and deep into their private lives. All eight EdTech products could or did transmit children's personal data to third-party advertising technology (AdTech) companies.

Finding Out Who Children Are

4. Four EdTech products authorized by the education ministry for children's use had the capability to collect their users' Android Advertising IDs, allowing them to tag, collectively, an estimated 1.25 billion users and uniquely identify their devices for the sole purpose of advertising to them.[4]
5. These identifiers enabled companies to infer the interests and characteristics of individual children for commercial purposes. Every time a child connects to the internet and comes into contact with tracking technology, any information collected about that child is tied back to the identifier associated with them by that company, resulting in a comprehensive profile over time. Data tied together in this way do not need a real name to be able to target a real child or person.
6. Human Rights Watch submits that these tracking techniques are neither proportionate nor necessary for these products to function, or to deliver educational content to children. Their use on children in an educational setting arbitrarily interferes with children's right to privacy.

Tracking Who Children Know

7. Four apps recommended by the education ministry for children's use had the ability to collect information about their users' friends, family, and other acquaintances by accessing the contacts list saved on users' phones.[5]