Your digital footprint is everything apps record about you: what you give them, and what they collect as you use them (where you are, what you open, when). A good app collects only what its purpose needs. You manage your own footprint by checking settings, which often start open.
Ava typed three things into the club app. It knows eight things about her. Where did the other five come from?
Your mission: the club app is about to launch. Find out what it records about members, cut what it doesn't need, and help Ava set up her own account.
Engage: Commit to a prediction before you test anything. A wrong guess is fine: it shows you what to look for.
Explore: Try it on the board and compare what happens with your prediction.
Explain: Put a name to what you saw, and why it works.
Elaborate: Use the idea in a new situation.
Evaluate: Look back at your first ideas and what changed.
Make your prediction first. Help opens once you've locked it in.
EngageCommit to a prediction before you test anything. A wrong guess is fine: it shows you what to look for.
Engage: what does it know?
ExploreTry it on the board and compare what happens with your prediction.
Explore: given or collected?
Was your prediction right?
Try it yourselfYour edits are saved in this browser.
Sort everything the app recorded about Ava: did she give it, or was it collected as she used the app?
Use the board. This ticks when you get there.
ExplainPut a name to what you saw, and why it works.
Explain: does it need it?
Your digital footprint is all the data about you that systems record: what you give and what they collect as you use them.
Worked exampleBefore each step, say what you think comes next.
purposeStart from what the app is for: news about club meetings.
NameNeeded: news is addressed to a person.
School emailNeeded: that's how the news arrives.
Home addressNot needed: nothing is posted. Collecting it adds risk and nothing else.
testFor each item ask: would the app still do its job without it? If yes, don't collect it.
Find the mistake
Sam builds the sign-up form. Click the line where it first goes wrong.
ElaborateUse the idea in a new situation.
Elaborate: the sign-up form
Try it yourselfYour edits are saved in this browser.
The app's purpose is news about meetings. Mark every field and setting Needed or Not needed.
Use the board. This ticks when you get there.
Now the same form is for the excursion to the science museum. Mark each one again.
Use the board. This ticks when you get there.
ElaborateUse the idea in a new situation.
Elaborate: Ava's settings
Try it yourselfYour edits are saved in this browser.
Need a hint?
Read what each setting does before you change it.
Another hint
Meeting reminders are why Ava joined: keep those.
Ava's settings came open. Make her account as private as it can be while she still hears about meetings.
Use the board. This ticks when you get there.
EvaluateLook back at your first ideas and what changed.
Evaluate: look back
For teachers
Students sort what an app records into data given and data collected as it is used, judge each sign-up field against the app's purpose, and set an account to its most private while keeping its purpose (AC9TDI8P14 nodes 1 to 3). A 5E mission lesson. About 40 minutes.
I can name data an app collects without my typing it.
I can judge whether data is needed for an app's purpose.
I can set my own privacy settings and explain the trade-off.
Before class
Try the board yourself. Ava and the club app are made up.
The one idea: collect only what the purpose needs, and check your own settings, because they often start open.
Typical width (node 1): have pairs open the privacy section of one app they use (or a printed privacy policy) and list three things it collects, at least one collected as they use it.
Running the lesson
Engage: ask what an app might know that you never told it.
Explore: ask which collected-as-used items surprised them.
Explain: model the purpose test on one field aloud.
Elaborate: ask why the phone number changed from Not needed to Needed.
Evaluate: discuss which of their own settings they'd change.
The hard part (on purpose)
Students mark everything Not needed. Ask what would stop working: an app needs some data to do its job.
When students get stuck
A student keeps extra data just in case (Sam's mistake). Ask: Would the app still do its job without it? Fix: If yes, don't collect it.
A student turns meeting reminders off too. Ask: Why did Ava join the app? Fix: Keep what the purpose needs; turn off the rest.
Stretch and support
Stretch: Compare what two apps you use collect (their privacy pages) and decide which collects more than its purpose needs.
Support: The purpose test on a card: what is the app for? Would it still work without this?
Where it leads
Next (Years 9–10): Threat models.
What each step is for
Engage: what does it know?: Committing to what an app knows tests the new move: apps collect data you never type.
Explore: given or collected?: Students sort a week of data and meet the passive half of a footprint by getting some wrong first.
Explain: does it need it?: The teacher models judging one field against the app's purpose. Sam collects in case, the misconception planted after the method.
Elaborate: the sign-up form: One change at a time: the same form for two purposes, so the same field can be needed for one and not the other.
Elaborate: Ava's settings: Managing one's own footprint: students set an account to its most private while keeping what the app is for, and read each setting's trade-off.
Now you can
Name data an app collects without my typing it.
Judge whether data is needed for an app's purpose.
Set my own privacy settings and explain the trade-off.