Notchhwan, Gyeongnam Provincial Council Member, "Gyeongnam Office of Education's iTalkTalk Personal Information Collection, Rights Violation"

No Chi-hwan, member of the Gyeongnam Provincial Assembly from the People Power Party. [Image source=Gyeongnam Provincial Assembly]

[Asia Economy Yeongnam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Lee Seryeong] On the 20th, No Chihwan, a member of the People Power Party and Gyeongnam Provincial Assembly, criticized Park Jonghun, Superintendent of Gyeongnam Office of Education, and iTalkTalk at the 398th Gyeongnam Provincial Assembly temporary session.

Assemblyman No claimed that the collection of student data through iTalkTalk, a big data and artificial intelligence (AI) platform and a major project of the provincial Office of Education, infringed on students' rights.

He evaluated iTalkTalk as “a project in which the policy of Superintendent Park Jonghun, who has led Gyeongnam education with the highest value of respecting the rights of each student in collecting student personal information, has disappeared.”

During the 2021 fiscal year Gyeongsangnam-do Office of Education settlement approval review held that day, regarding the Gyeongnam Office of Education’s plan to use student personal information collected through iTalkTalk, he said, “It is questionable whether students’ self-determination rights over personal information are being sufficiently respected.”

Assemblyman No explained, “Personal information is valued as an asset that other information does not have, so control over personal information is not only one’s right but also deeply related to human rights.”

He also emphasized, “The Office of Education claims that after legal review of basic rights, if students refuse to provide personal information, their right to refuse is sufficiently exercised, but the collection of personal information itself does not align with Superintendent Park’s policy of respecting student human rights.”

He argued that ▲ whether the purpose of the project, that the student personal information collected by the Office of Education is used as data for career guidance, has been sufficiently notified to parents ▲ and whether consent to provide information was obtained based on the understanding of both students and parents should be examined.

Assemblyman No also raised doubts about the effectiveness of iTalkTalk by disclosing the actual student access status to iTalkTalk.

According to the Office of Education, in elementary schools where the distribution of smart devices has been completed, as of June, the average weekly number of iTalkTalk users was 355,000. Converted to a daily basis over five school days excluding weekends, about 71,000 students accessed it per day.

Regarding this, Assemblyman No said, “I understand that there is a certain mandatory number of hours for using iTalkTalk in school classes,” and explained, “Considering that the number of elementary students in the province is about 180,000, the utilization rate is so low that it can be said that it is hardly used outside of school classes.”

He continued, “Considering that nearly 200 billion won was invested in related projects such as device distribution and program development, I have doubts about the effectiveness of iTalkTalk,” and questioned, “Wouldn’t the effectiveness have been different if this budget had been invested in more urgent educational issues?”

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