Face it, few people read privacy policies. But when it comes to kids' privacy, can we afford not to understand how their data is being used? Will badging systems like those provided by Common Sense Media get us to actually pay attention?

 

More on Jill Bronfman. 

 

SPEAKERS

Wayne Stacy, Jill Bronfman

 

Wayne Stacy  00:00

Welcome, everyone to the Berkeley Center for Law and Technology's Expert Series podcast. I'm your host, Wayne Stacey, the Executive Director for BCLT. And today we're here to talk about privacy and some of the tools that are there to help the average person deal with the rather complex privacy policies that are out there. So what we all know is privacy and tech doesn't happen by accident. Laws have been put in place to try to help everyone understand what their options are. And yet people still don't know what their options are. We get complex policies that are supposedly simplified. And what we hear is Americans over and over say they really care about privacy, just not enough to read those privacy policies. So with that in mind, what are the options that are available to help us as the country start thinking about privacy in a more sophisticated way, and especially privacy for our kids. So with that in mind, we are incredibly fortunate to have one of the nation's leading thinkers on this topic of privacy, and the realities of privacy as it applies to adults and children. So welcome. We have Jill Bronfman, the privacy counsel from Common Sense Media.

 

Jill Bronfman  01:20

Thank you. I'm glad to be here. Looking forward to talking about privacy and kids and consumer protection and all the things we work on at Common Sense Media.

 

Wayne Stacy  01:29

Well, let's just start with the the high level question, why does Common Sense Media care about privacy?

 

Jill Bronfman  01:35

We care about it, because we care about kids. And I think one of the important things about protecting children is protecting their privacy and their safety and their security. And we're particularly in the privacy group at Common Sense Media focused on the technology that children are using the media that children are using, that includes technology they might be using in the classroom, as students as K through 12 students, or even college students, and it includes technology they might be using at home. Needless to say, in the last year and a half, those two categories are mixed together. So lots of surprises there, due to the pandemic, where kids have been doing school at home and accessing technology like gaming that they might normally only use at home, in schools with a gamification of education. So things have really mixed it up for us in the last year and a half. And we are trying to get a handle on kids privacy, and all of the technology that kids could be using both home and in the classroom.

 

Wayne Stacy  02:44

I'm actually a little embarrassed to admit this. I mean, I've spent my life in technology law, tearing apart contracts, building contracts back up. But I don't pay much attention to the privacy policies that that I'm signing myself or I'm checking the box, I just find them a nuisance, I check and I move on. I know I'm in good company with lots of other lawyers. But when it comes to apps for my kids, I'm very, very thoughtful about it. But it's not easy, especially with the proliferation of school technology. How does Common Sense Media help people like me, and maybe even people that that are going to spend less time to keep up with the the technology and the privacy issues?

 

Jill Bronfman  03:28