All secondary school students were/will be given Personal Learning Devices (PLDs) this year. All of them would be installed with Device Management Applications (DMAs). This is a serious invasion to the privacy of students. 

The administrators of the application can see all the browsing history, block many site and control what apps can be flown loaded, if any, on the device. Many students from lower-income families have never had a device of their own. While blocking sites containing pornography and the like is justified, many sites such as WhatsApp Web and Discord are also blocked. This is just not fair as there is no threat in using these websites and sometimes they can be very useful, e.g. uploading files to friends via WhatsApp Web. And blocking sites with obscenity is already an option on most iPads and computers, even without the DMA. Seeing students’ browsing history is also unjustified. Students may search some embarrassing things on Google (such as ‘How to remove back wart’) and the device administrators are able to see this. Privacy is a basic right and the Ministry of education is violating it.

I hope that this petition is able to create some impact, at least loosen some restrictions. Thank you if you have signed. (Image credit: Straits Times)