Coalition Asks States to Protect Children from ZapMe! Corp. Privacy
Invasion
Gary Ruskin
gary@essential.org
Wed, 19 Jan 2000 10:14:51 -0500
Commercial Alert January 19, 2000
Responding to the ZapMe! Corp.'s invasion of children's privacy in
schools, a coalition of progressive, conservative and privacy
organizations and scholars today urged all 50 governors and chairs of
education committees in all 50 state legislatures to protect children
from ZapMe! Corp., and asked corporations to break their partnerships
with ZapMe!.
There is an article in today's Wall Street Journal about the coalition:
"ZapMe Is Targeted Over Student Data Collected on Web."
Following is the text of the letter to Governor Tom Ridge of
Pennsylvania.
Dear Governor Ridge:
We write to alert you to a new form of electronic privacy invasion that
is taking root in the schools.
The ZapMe! Corp. loans to schools a package of 15 computers, along with
a satellite dish and an Internet server. ZapMe! then requires students
to receive an electronic ID in order to use these computers. Schools
may not install software on the computers without permission; they must
pay the cost of insuring the computers; and they must use the computers
for an average of four hours per schoolday. ZapMe! has designed these
computers to serve as the front end of a sophisticated marketing and
advertising scheme.
• ZapMe's corporate sponsors may collect and distribute personal
information about the children, including their names, addresses and
telephone numbers.
• ZapMe! itself monitors the activities of the children on the Web, for
commercial purposes. According to Associated Press, ZapMe! breaks the
data down "by age, sex and ZIP code. It delivers this information to
advertisers and marketers, who use it to target students in school with
laser-like precision."
• ZapMe! directs advertising at schoolchildren via the ZapMe! Internet
browser.
• ZapMe! requires students three times a year to bring ZapMe! corporate
sponsor marketing materials home to their parents.
In essence, ZapMe! plants computers in the schools as advertising
delivery, market research and surveillance machines. It turns the
schools and the compulsory schooling laws into a means of gaining access
to a captive audience of children in order to extract market research
from them and to advertise to them. Parents entrust their children to
the schools -- especially public schools -- for the purpose of learning
and developing character, not to serve as guinea pigs for advertising
and marketing firms.
We oppose ZapMe's business operations in the schools. ZapMe violates
the privacy of schoolchildren, misuses the schools and compulsory
schooling laws to force children to watch ads during school time, and
degrades the moral authority of schools and teachers by turning them
into instruments of corporate advertising and marketing.
At a minimum, the Pennsylvania State Board of Education should take
steps to restore parents some control over the uses of their children
for commercial gain. Specifically, the Pennsylvania State Board of
Education should require ZapMe!, and any company like it, to
• inform parents fully regarding the activities of the company in
question, and to obtain written consent from parents before gathering
any personal information from their children; and,
• disclose fully to parents any and all uses of personal information and
other data obtained from their children, including specific corporations
that purchase or use this information, and the specific ways in which
they use it.
The basic issue here is the power of parents to control the influences
upon their own children, and their children's personal information.
While children are at school, parents are entitled to know who obtains
information about their children, and precisely how that information is
used. They would demand to know this if ZapMe! executives came to their
door at night and sought it in person. These executives should not be
permitted to cloak their activities from parents nor hide behind the
bureaucracies of the schools.
If you have any questions about ZapMe! Corp., or want more information,
please feel free to contact Gary Ruskin of Commercial Alert or Jim
Metrock of Obligation, Inc.
Sincerely,
Joan Almon, U.S. Coordinator, Alliance for Childhood
Robert Bulmash, President, Private Citizen, Inc.
Bettye M. Caldwell, Past President, National Association for the
Education of Young Children
Jason Catlett, President, Junkbusters Corp.
Gregg Davis, Director, Camphill Soltane
Gloria DeGaetano, co-author, Stop Teaching Our Kids to Kill
Mark A. Finser, President, Rudolf Steiner Foundation
Roy F. Fox, Assoc. Prof. of Eng. Ed. & Lit., U. of MO-Columbia; author,
Harvesting Minds
Beth Givens, Director, Privacy Rights Clearinghouse
Jane M. Healy, Ph.D., author, Failure to Connect
Michael F. Jacobson, co-author, Marketing Madness
Jean Kilbourne, author, Deadly Persuasion
Velma LaPoint, Ph.D., Associate Professor of Human Development, Howard
University
Diane Levin, Professor of Education, Wheelock College; author, Remote
Control Childhood
James Love, Director, Consumer Project on Technology
Bob McCannon, Executive Director, Mew Mexico Media Literacy Project
Jim Metrock, President, Obligation, Inc.
Mark Crispin Miller, Professor of Media Ecology, New York University
Kathryn C. Montgomery, Ph.D., President, Center for Media Education
Kate Moody, Ed.D., University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston
Gary Ruskin, Director, Commercial Alert
Phyllis Schlafly, President, Eagle Forum
Richard E. Sclove, Founder, The Loka Institute; author, Democracy &
Technology
Shari Steele, Director of Legal Services, Electronic Frontier Foundation
Betsy Taylor, Executive Director, Center for a New American Dream
David Walsh, Ph.D. President, National Institute on Media and the Family
Donald E. Wildmon, President, American Family Association
<-----------letter ends here------------->
Letters were also sent to ZapMe! corporate partners and sponsors,
including Amazon.com, Ask Jeeves, Inc, Dell Computer Co., General
Electric Co, Gilat Satellite Networks Ltd., Microsoft Co., NEC America,
Inc., School Specialty, Inc., Sylvan Learning Systems, Inc., Toshiba
America Inc. Xerox Co., and Yahoo! Inc.
Following is the text of the letter to Michael Dell, CEO of Dell
Computer.
Dear Mr. Dell:
We are writing to urge you to reconsider your business partnership with
the ZapMe! Corp. ZapMe! represents a commercial incursion into the
school which bodes ill for both children and schools.
As you know, ZapMe! loans to schools a package of 15 computers, along
with a satellite dish and an Internet server. ZapMe! then requires
students to receive an electronic ID in order to use these computers.
Schools may not install software on the computers without permission;
they must pay the cost of insuring the computers; and they must use the
computers for an average of four hours per schoolday. ZapMe! has
designed these computers to serve as the front end of a sophisticated
marketing and advertising scheme.
• ZapMe's corporate sponsors may collect and distribute personal
information about the children, including their names, addresses and
telephone numbers.
• ZapMe! itself monitors the activities of the children on the Web, for
commercial purposes. According to Associated Press, ZapMe! breaks the
data down "by age, sex and ZIP code. It delivers this information to
advertisers and marketers, who use it to target students in school with
laser-like precision."
• ZapMe! directs advertising at schoolchildren via the ZapMe! Internet
browser.
• ZapMe! requires students three times a year to bring ZapMe! corporate
sponsor marketing materials home to their parents.
ZapMe's business model is beyond redemption. In essence, it plants
computers in the schools as advertising delivery, market research and
surveillance machines. It turns the schools and the compulsory
schooling laws into a means of gaining access to a captive audience of
children in order to extract market research from them and to advertise
to them.
We find this utterly unacceptable. ZapMe! violates the privacy of
schoolchildren, misuses the schools and compulsory schooling laws to
force children to watch advertising during school time, and degrades the
moral authority of schools and teachers by turning them into instruments
of corporate advertising and marketing.
We would be grateful for your earliest response indicating whether you
intend to continue your partnership with ZapMe! Please address this to
Gary Ruskin at Commercial Alert, or Jim Metrock of Obligation, Inc.
Sincerely,
Joan Almon, U.S. Coordinator, Alliance for Childhood
Robert Bulmash, President, Private Citizen, Inc.
Bettye M. Caldwell, Past President, National Association for the
Education of Young Children
Jason Catlett, President, Junkbusters Corp.
Gregg Davis, Director, Camphill Soltane
Gloria DeGaetano, co-author, Stop Teaching Our Kids to Kill
Mark A. Finser, President, Rudolf Steiner Foundation
Roy F. Fox, Assoc. Prof. of Eng. Ed. & Lit., U. of MO-Columbia; author,
Harvesting Minds
Beth Givens, Director, Privacy Rights Clearinghouse
Jane M. Healy, Ph.D., author, Failure to Connect
Michael F. Jacobson, co-author, Marketing Madness
Jean Kilbourne, author, Deadly Persuasion
Velma LaPoint, Ph.D., Associate Professor of Human Development, Howard
University
Diane Levin, Professor of Education, Wheelock College; author, Remote
Control Childhood
James Love, Director, Consumer Project on Technology
Bob McCannon, Executive Director, Mew Mexico Media Literacy Project
Jim Metrock, President, Obligation, Inc.
Mark Crispin Miller, Professor of Media Ecology, New York University
Kathryn C. Montgomery, Ph.D., President, Center for Media Education
Kate Moody, Ed.D., University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston
Gary Ruskin, Director, Commercial Alert
Phyllis Schlafly, President, Eagle Forum
Richard E. Sclove, Founder, The Loka Institute; author, Democracy &
Technology
Shari Steele, Director of Legal Services, Electronic Frontier Foundation
Betsy Taylor, Executive Director, Center for a New American Dream
David Walsh, Ph.D. President, National Institute on Media and the Family
Donald E. Wildmon, President, American Family Association
<--------------letter ends here-------------->
WHAT YOU CAN DO TO HELP:
1) Make sure that ZapMe! Corp. is not allowed to enter your local
schools, or if it is already in the schools, then make sure the ZapMe!
computers are removed.
2) Ask your governor and state legislators to enact state legislation to
protect children in your state from ZapMe! privacy invasions.
3) Support the Student Privacy Protection Act (HR 2915, S 1908), to
protect schoolchildren from ZapMe! and other predatory corporations that
invade children's privacy in the schools. For more information about the
Student Privacy Protection Act, see
<http://lists.essential.org/commercial-alert/msg00021.html>.
Commercial Alert opposes the excesses of commercialism, advertising and
marketing. For more information about ZapMe! Corp, see Commercial
Alert's web page on ZapMe! at
<http://www.essential.org/alert/zapme/index.html>. Commercial Alert's
main web page is <http://www.essential.org/alert/>
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--
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Gary Ruskin | Commercial Alert
1611 Connecticut Ave. NW Suite #3A | Washington, DC 20009
Phone: (202) 296-2787 | Fax (202) 833-2406
http://www.essential.org/alert/ | mailto:gary@essential.org
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