Didattica di emergenza o Emergency Remote Teaching: un'analisi empirica in tema di privacy e diritto d'autore dei termini e condizioni dei servizi online più diffusi

The rapid spread of the SARS-CoV-2 virus in the early days of March 2020 shut down universities in most European countries. With the exception of those already offering blended teaching activities, the swift move to Emergency Remote Teaching (ERT) took most universities by surprise. Some universities were able to rely on licensed software that was repurposed to instruct students and to provide their staff with appropriate training. Others left it to their teachers to identify software and IT services for distant learning purposes. In both scenarios, institutions and teachers had fairly little time to assess the suitability of the online tools with the required attention. As preliminary data are showing, the use of videoconferencing and e learning platforms under ERT circumstances raise several concerns in terms of data privacy and copyright. The paper intends to shed light on the major critical aspects and potential “creepy” functions hidden in the jungle of terms of service and privacy policies of online services used for ERT. The main goal is to verify whether sufficient and clear information is provided, in order to enable teachers to carry out educational activities and interact with their students without uncertainties as to the potential legal consequences of their use and concerns regarding the protection of their content and personal data. To this end, the paper examines the terms and conditions, privacy policies and community guidelines of a sample of nine online services used across Europe to deliver ERT. The selected tools include dedicated software for managing teams and groups of students online, content sharing platforms and social networks, video-communication services repurposed or retrofitted to answer the needs of education.