Workshop 3. 'Do I want your Cookies'? Understanding Online Terms and Conditions.

Details of the session

As part of this free online session, Maria Bell from Mesomorphic will offer an overview of the third theme of our new series of “Maddie is Online: ethics of online safety and security" on 'Understanding Online Terms and Conditions'. We are going to review Series 4 'Maddie is Online' toolkit, pp. 40-51. The toolkit for series 4 can be found here. You can also download it as PDF. Please have the toolkit open for the session. 

Register

The concepts that will be explored include the following:

• App permissions and how to make informed choices about which apps to use.
• Why online services have terms and conditions that govern their use, giving examples that illustrate how they impact on a user (e.g., digital cookies, age restrictions).
• The different ways that advertisers collect information about users to send them targeted ads.

We have created an imaginative story ('Do I Want Your Cookies?') that places Maddie and Michael, the central characters of our series in a situation where they have to make a decision on whether to use an app that requires them to give their personal data upon signing up. The app uses small information files that are called ‘digital cookies’ (e.g., they capture their location, which device they use, the software version they use and their screen dimensions, how they use the platform, which pages they view most often and how they interact with the content). What should they do? Should they subscribe or not?

Join us for this session to make a decision together on what is best for Maddie and Michael!

About the work

“Maddie is Online: a creative learning path to ethics of online safety and security for young people” is a project funded by the Scottish Government and supported by Digital Xtra Fund.

Our purpose is to engage schools with the concepts of an Ethical Digital Nation:

"Growing as an ethical digital nation and developing trust in the way we use data and apply digital technology is a collective responsibility” (Scottish Government Ethical Digital Nation).

Why focus on ethics?

Children and young people can benefit from a greater exposure to online ideas, opportunities for learning, creativity and connectivity, but there are also causes for concern, abound in modern discussions of data ethics: they are equally vulnerable to the pitfalls and harms that can befall anyone, who is unfamiliar with safeguarding their own rights.

You can also find other previous projects via the 'Maddie is Online' bookshelf.