Teachers regularly violate data protection with WhatsApp

The problem with WhatsApp does not stop at schools: teachers also regularly violate data protection by using the well-known messenger.

WhatsApp has become an integral part of our everyday lives and has long since replaced other common methods of communication. Who writes text messages these days? Communication via email has also been out of fashion in private life for a long time. It makes sense that teachers also organize everyday school life via the messenger.

But there is a not so small catch. The data protection regulation stipulates that no personal data may be sent via WhatsApp. But that is exactly what is done most of the time, every day.

Sending homework and timetables, planning conferences and much more is regularly done via WhatsApp. None of this is really allowed, but it's not completely forbidden either. Teachers often find themselves in a gray area here. Not to mention that many students are not yet officially allowed to use WhatsApp ( we reported ).

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And now?

From an article in the Neue Westfälische we also learn that the North Rhine-Westphalia Ministry of Education further underlines this with a rather vague formulation (see here ). It tells you that there is basically no legal regulation in schools that expressly prohibits teachers from using modern communication media such as WhatsApp. The school management is responsible for compliance with data protection regulations.

For business communication in schools, the data protection requirements must be met. However, WhatsApp doesn't do that. WhatsApp is therefore intended exclusively for private communication.

So there remains a gray area in which the current data protection regulations are being violated. Theoretically, teachers could even be prosecuted for this if there is an instruction that WhatsApp may not be used for business purposes. From a purely legal perspective, there would be no choice but to rely on telephone conversations, letters or office hours, but this would probably prove difficult for rapid communication with entire school classes.

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Further problems

The article in the Neue Westfälsiche is also interesting because it highlights an additional problem. Not only is data protection a problem, but the protection of teachers' working hours and privacy is no longer guaranteed. In addition, constant availability can be harmful to your health and sometimes even lead to burnout.

Everyone knows how annoying WhatsApp groups can sometimes be, or knows the urge to respond to messages immediately because the whole thing definitely can't wait until after the weekend. And that's exactly when you actually fell into the trap.

The teacher's smartphone does not stand still even in the evenings and on weekends and this situation can be extremely stressful.

What is equally critical about this type of communication is that the boundaries often become blurred and the distance that exists between teacher and student is lost; some parents could find this contact to be invasive.

Tip: distance!

So if teachers don't keep their cell phone number to themselves from the start, or at least make it clear that they are not available for communication on WhatsApp (and then don't allow themselves to be tempted to respond to messages), sooner or later it will happen just a new beginning in the form of a number change.

A clear demarcation between work and private life is particularly important in such situations; teachers do not have to be available to students after work. After all, communication worked quite well a few years ago, even without a smartphone or email.

via NW

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Article image: Shutterstock / By Saint A