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<h2>Remote Education: My Children's Freedom and Privacy at Stake</h2>
<address class="byline">by Javier Sepúlveda
<a href="#sepulveda" id="sepulveda-rev"><sup>[*]</sup></a></address>
<hr class="thin" />
<div class="article">
<p>At the beginning of March 2020, we started to hear worrisome news
about the spread of COVID-19 in Spain. Within days, all public events,
conferences<a href="#conferences">[1]</a> and gatherings were
disallowed. Even a traditional celebration historically held in this
period, the <cite>Falles</cite><a href="#falles">[2]</a>, was
canceled.</p>
<p>Next came the stay-at-home order from the government and the
indefinite suspension of all in-person educational activities.
Teaching had to go online, but were schools, colleges and universities
prepared for this? The answer is no. In order to switch to remote
education, they needed videoconferencing platforms, communication
systems and servers they did not always have. And this is where the
problem starts.</p>
<p>Educational institutions began to choose whatever they needed
unilaterally and independently. Each teacher, school or university
picked a different program or platform on the spur of the moment,
basing their choices on the sole criteria of practicality and
popularity of the software. Far more important factors, such as the
freedom and privacy of their students—or their own—were
left aside. Students and parents had no say, it was a
take-it-or-leave-it approach.</p>
<p>Why were hundreds of students being condemned to use software that
is unfair to them? Why should all data (voice, images, videos,
handwritten documents) be owned by a company? <strong>The price of
proprietary systems is the surrender of our freedom. It is the voice
of our children and their image on video—everything is recorded
on third-party servers for later analysis and exploitation</strong>.
Too high a price to pay.</p>
<p>The situation was unacceptable. It was time to say <em>NO</em>.</p>
<h3>My children's schools</h3>
<p>Marta (10) and Javi (12) attend public schools in San Antonio de
Benagéber, Valencia, for their compulsory education. Apart from that,
they are involved in extracurricular activities at three different
private institutions. Marta takes elementary clarinet classes at the
local non-profit Music Association (to which I provide web and email
hosting.)
hosting). Javi takes trumpet lessons at the Professional Conservatory
of Music to prepare for admission to higher music studies in that
institution. They both also attend a local English Academy.</p>
<h3>My fight</h3>
<p>For my moral grounds, I cannot let my children use nonfree
software. I was determined to fight, but how? I was alone in this, and
still under quarantine. I realized I could help people cope with the
emergency by offering solutions I could easily find in my field of
knowledge: free software they could use for their specific needs.</p>
<p>But I also realized the task was not easy. It was necessary to
start with small steps, realistic goals. With the private schools, I
thought, they should be more inclined to listen, since there I am not
only a parent, but also a paying costumer. And at Marta's Music
Association I was also their server provider, so surely they would
trust my opinion on issues related to information technology.</p>
<blockquote>
<p><em>“A walk of a thousand miles consists of lots of steps.
Each time you don't install some nonfree program, or decide not to run
it that day, that is a step towards your own freedom.”</em>
(Richard Stallman, <a href="/philosophy/saying-no-even-once.html">
Saying No to unjust computing even once is help</a>).</p>
</blockquote>
<h3>The first step</h3>
<p>When a professor from Marta's music school called me to invite me
to create a Skype account for my daughter's lessons, I said,
“Have you read the terms and conditions of that service? Skype
is widely known software, but that doesn't mean it's the best choice.
Have you heard about Jitsi? I can help you. I will send you all the
information right now with an explanation on how to use it so that you
can try it. It's also free/libre software, it does not intercept
communications and it does not collect or store any data.”
Very enthusiastically, he replied, “Thank you, I really
appreciate your advice.”</p>
<p>I immediately emailed him all the necessary information, complete
with detailed instructions he might need to get started. Two days
later, I received an email from the school principal thanking me and
saying that <a
href="https://www.socmusab.es/noticias/escuela-de-musica-clases-on-line-mas-justas-y-seguras/">
all
href="https://web.archive.org/web/20201202041904/https://www.socmusab.es/noticias/escuela-de-musica-clases-on-line-mas-justas-y-seguras/">all teachers and students had agreed to use Jitsi</a>.</p>
<p>I was amazed. By being positive and showing my intention to help,
I got the school teacher to understand and listen to my advice.</p>
<div class="pict">
<a href="/education/misc/jitsi-marta-espejo.png">
<img src="/education/misc/jitsi-marta-espejo-sm.png"
alt="Screenshot showing Marta and her teacher during a clarinet lesson
over Jitsi."/></a>
<p>Marta takes a clarinet lesson over Jitsi.</p>
</div>
<h3>The second step</h3>
<p>Results were not as immediate at the English Academy.</p>
<p>When they decided to go online, they surprised me with a call to
say I needed to open a Skype account for my children's first remote
class, which was due the following day. There was no time. There was
no way out. Either that, or the kids would miss their lessons. I
accepted—for the moment.</p>
<p>Later that day, I engaged in what seemed a never ending battle with
them. To make my case, I first sent them a well reasoned and
informative letter. I reminded them that Skype is owned by Microsoft,
a company that develops freedom-denying software, and explained what
free/libre software is. I mentioned the abusive clauses in the
company's <a href="https://privacy.microsoft.com/en-us/privacystatement">
privacy statement</a>, among which the fact that <strong>Microsoft
records and analyzes users' communications, and it can hand that data
over to other companies</strong>. I suggested to replace Skype with
Jitsi and offered to help. I even said my children would quit the
institution unless it changed to a free/libre platform.</p>
<p>They did not respond. They were forcing almost one hundred
students, their teachers and their parents to open a Microsoft account
in order to use a piece of software that takes advantage of them. They
were failing to see the seriousness of the issue, dazzled as they
were by an impressive display of misleading information about the
software they considered to be “well-known,” thus good.</p>
<p>I resent my email to the principal of the school, and this time I
forwarded it to teachers as well. I waited. I called them and talked
to them at length. Once again, I made it clear I would withdraw my
children from their school unless they changed that software.</p>
<p>Eventually they understood my position and became aware of the
dangers of Skype. They finally agreed to use Jitsi!</p>
<h3>The third step</h3>
<p>In the meantime, after two weeks of staying at home, Javi was
taking his trumpet classes over Skype. At the next lesson, I sat next
to my son and spoke to the teacher. I began by thanking him for his
work, since Javi was making progress despite the difficult situation.
Then I mentioned my concern about privacy and other issues that these
nonfree programs present. I told him pretty much the same things I had
told the other teachers. He was surprised, “I didn't know about
this! Is there any other program we can use?” So I invited him
to use <a href="https://videoconferencia.valenciatech.com/"> my Jitsi server</a>, server, to avoid interruptions and guarantee the best
sound quality.</p>
<p>Since then, Javi takes his trumpet lessons on Jitsi. The teacher
then asked me if he could use the same server with <em>all</em> his
trumpet students and I agreed, of course. The purpose of that server
is to help anyone who may need it.</p>
<div class="pict">
<a href="/education/misc/jitsi-javi-garcia.png">
<img src="/education/misc/jitsi-javi-garcia-sm.png"
alt="Screenshot showing Javi and his teacher during a trumpet lesson
over Jitsi."/></a>
<p>Javi takes a trumpet lesson over Jitsi.</p>
</div>
<h3>Going forward</h3>
<p>I managed to raise awareness about freedom and privacy issues and
expand the use of free software in my community. More than two hundred
people in town are now using Jitsi. But I want to do more, I want to
keep walking. For one thing, I want to reach the local public schools,
knowing beforehand what a challenge that is.</p>
<p>I will keep fighting nonfree software, specially in schools, armed
with the resources I have at hand: my servers, on which I have
installed free/libre high quality platforms for everyone to use,
such as <a href="https://docs.valenciatech.com/">Etherpad</a>, <a
href="https://bbb.valenciatech.com">BigBlueButton</a>, and the Jitsi
server I mentioned before. Right now many people are using them, so
I am soon going to upgrade the hardware to allow more simultaneous
connections without loosing quality.</p>
<p>What use. What is
most important, I am armed with knowledge about the <a
href="/philosophy/free-software-even-more-important.html">
philosophical foundations</a> of the Free Software Movement and the
increasingly significant role that software plays in our daily
lives.</p>
<h3>Thanks</h3>
<p>Thanks to my mentor, Richard Stallman, whose support and
encouragement helped me become aware of the value of my efforts.
Thanks to him for urging me to share my experience with
the Free Software Foundation, and to the FSF for mentioning my work
among others they included in an article about <a
href="https://www.fsf.org/blogs/community/remote-education-does-not-require-giving-up-rights-to-freedom-and-privacy">
freedom and privacy in remote education</a>. Thanks to Dora Scilipoti
from the <a
href="/education/edu-team.html">GNU Education Team</a>, for her
precious advice and help in writing this text.</p>
</div>
<div class="infobox">
<hr />
<h4>Author's Notes</h4>
<ol>
<li id="conferences">With help from the GNU/Linux Users Group
of Valencia, I had organized a series of Richard Stallman's speeches
in several areas of Spain from March 22 to 26. They all had to be
canceled.</li>
<li id="falles">More information about the <a
href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Falles"><cite>Falles</cite></a>
and the rare moments in history when this old event was
suspended.</li>
</ol>
<h4>Footnote</h4>
<p><a href="#sepulveda-rev" id="sepulveda">[*]</a> Javier Sepúlveda
is an Industrial Design and Computer Science Engineer. He is the
founder and executive director of VALENCIATECH, a server
administration company that runs and offers exclusively free
software. He is a <a
href="/people/speakers.html#Sepulveda">GNU speaker</a> and free
software advocate.</p>
</div>
<div class="infobox">
<hr />
<blockquote>
<p>
Photos courtesy of Javier Sepúlveda. Licensed under
<a rel="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">
Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International
License</a>.</p>
</blockquote>
</div>
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