Meaningful consent is a term that describes a certain level of understanding reached between a user and a service in order to qualify that agreement as fair and ethical. UBC, a publicly funded institution, should strive for the highest degree of meaningfulness in their user agreements by clearly explaining how their services operate to their users. Although there’s a difference in the requirements of legal and meaningful versions of consent, I strongly believe that Connect’s Terms of Use are an inadequate representation of its functionality, and don’t create meaningful consent for its users.
I had to search for Connect’s Terms of Use because they aren’t available
on the login page, which, in order to produce meaningful consent, seems an ideal place for them to be. They are a supplement to the CWL’s Terms of Use, but the major difference between the two is that the latter clearly indicates what kinds of information is being recorded and why, and even elaborates on the security measures in place to protect users’ personal information. Whereas Connect’s Terms of Use don’t mention what kind of information is being recorded or for what purpose.
I’ve taken the liberty of summarizing the points within the Terms of Use that I believe most contradict with any semblance of meaningfulness or even basic transparency when seeking to establish an agreement with students:
- “By logging into the Service you agree to these Terms of Use.”
Students are implicitly agreeing to the Terms of Use by simply using the system. Were you aware that you allowed UBC to record and store any and all of your information while you navigate and use Connect? (This includes click, login, and time metrics.)
- “If you do not agree to these Terms of Use you must not log in, access, browse or otherwise use the Service.”
How can you reject the Terms of Use if you aren’t aware of them in the first place? And how otherwise can students access their course materials? Isn’t access to education a fundamental human right? UBC is a publicly funded institution, after all.
- “UBC may, in its sole discretion, modify these Terms of Use at any time. Any modifications will be effective upon them being posted to the Service. Your continued use of the Service following the posting of the modifications constitutes acceptance of such modifications.”
If you weren’t initially aware of these conditions, then it gets worse for you. The flawed logic of the initial point is reproduced in this point, like a home built upon a bad foundation, the validity of your consent is in serious peril as the home becomes increasingly unstable at each level. Although you weren’t aware that you were giving your consent in the first place, UBC has the power to change its Terms of Use at any time without notifying you. This means that the unknown amount of information that is being collected and used for unknown purposes, which is happening unknown to you, can be changed in any number of unknown ways that you won’t ever know about.
- “You agree to indemnify and hold harmless UBC, its Board of Governors, agents, contractors, licensors, and licensees against any all claims arising from or in any way relating to your use of the Service including, without limitation, the Content you contribute to the Service.”
This means that you can’t complain later about the information that UBC has recorded and stored about you because by logging in and using the system, which is often a mandatory component of your education, you’re giving UBC consent to not only your data, but also to any content that you, your classmates, or your instructor have posted to Connect. And should this data be breached, and the unknown amount of unknown information about you be released to national and international intelligence agencies, private corporations, and cybercriminals, then you can’t complain to UBC about it because you’ve already consented to its Terms of Use. Remember?
And perhaps most troubling is this little gem from the CWL’s terms of use:
- “you acknowledge that you have read and understood…”
How can you acknowledge that you’ve read and understood something that you’ve never seen before? How does that ethically produce consent? If UBC at least provided a link to the Terms of Use on the Connect log in page then perhaps this condition would be acceptable. But the fact is that UBC doesn’t even provide this minimal service in ensuring that you’ve read and understood its Terms of Use, which is tragically ironic. We know that Connect is capable of collecting your click and login information, it could therefore realistically detect if someone has spent the required amount of time reading the Terms of Use and then ask them for consent by providing a box to click. This would be the bare minimum to meet the requirements of this provision. The fact that UBC doesn’t even strive for these basic measures of meaningful consent indicates to me that UBC doesn’t really care if students have read or understood the Terms of Use for Connect.
If you’re feeling upset about the way Connect produces consent, then you might find it useful to make a complaint through UBC’s official channels. According to Policy No. 104, ‘Acceptable Use and Security of UBC Electronic Information and Systems,’ you could contact the Chief Information Officer (CIO):
- 1.3 If a User becomes aware that UBC Electronic Information and Systems are not being used appropriately, the User should bring this to the attention of the relevant administrative head of unit or the CIO so that appropriate action can be taken to address the situation.
Have you ever read the Terms of Use for Connect or any other CWL enabled learning technologies at UBC? How could UBC improve on acquiring real student consent when it comes to the use of technology? Why should you care about the Terms of Use when it comes to university hosted systems? Apparently I’m not the only one taking a critical look at digital consent in Canada, Dr. Michael Geist, law professor at the University of Ottawa, has also recently published on this issue.
My next blog post will examine the different roles that are created in the Connect system and explore the hypocrisy of students occupying the lowest position of this hierarchy despite the fact that Connect is supposedly operating for their benefit.
The Blog Series
The Connect Exposed blog series documents my inquest into data collection on Blackboard Connect, the difficult process of obtaining my data from UBC, and privacy concerns around the collection of student information.
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