June 27, 2023
This report is the second findings report from our 2022 K12 EdTech Safety Benchmark. In this report we examine the nationwide data for patterns between school/district technology behaviors and ISL App Safety Scores. Similarly, we examine the data for patterns between third party certifications and promises and the ISL App Safety Score.
Key findings include:
- School technology behaviors across K12 schools in the US are inconsistent and seem to be still maturing.
- SOPIPA-like laws in the US may be having a positive impact in reducing retargeting ads in EdTech, but they don’t appear to be 100% effective in eliminating retargeting ads.
- The set of apps with third-party certifications or promises are overall safer than apps with no certifications or promises.
- COPPA Safe Harbor certifications were very effective in eliminating retargeting ads in apps, but have a substantially higher percentage of Do Not Use (73.8%) than the overall sample (54.6%), AND apps with no certification or promise at all (56.1%). COPPA Safe Harbor certified apps also had a higher percentage of ads (21.6%) than both the overall sample (15.2%) AND apps without any certification or promise (18.6%).