Digital Citizenship and the Student's Digital Footprint: Questions of

Application, Promotion and Data Protection

Iskandar Mukhametzyanov

Institute for Strategy of Educational Development, Russian Academy of Education, Zhukovsky str. 16, Moscow, Russia

Keywords: Digital Citizenship, Student Digital Footprint, Student Data Protection.

Abstract: The digital transformation of the state also implies digital citizenship, and learning with the use of

digital technologies leaves a "digital footprint" of the student on the Internet. During the period of

self-isolation caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, the problem of data protection of education

participants has significantly worsened. For the purposes of this study, we have reviewed the

literature of recent years, reflecting the results of various studies, including national ones, focused

primarily on identifying the conditions for the implementation of "digital citizenship" and the

reasons for the decline in the quality of education, combined with the problems of protection of

students' personal data. "Digital citizenship" is a set of competencies of a citizen and the actions of

the state in ensuring equal access to digital information and the protection of citizens in digital

communication. The implementation of distance learning in the period of COVID-19 revealed the

problems of inequality of students in terms of access to information, as well as the lack of digital

competencies in learning and ensuring its security, the weak readiness of "digital citizens" to

effective use of their digital citizenship.

1 INTRODUCTION

The digital transformation of the state also implies

digital citizenship. Learning with the use of digital

technologies leaves a "digital footprint" of the student

on the Internet. During the period of self-isolation

caused by the COVID-19 pandemic and the forced

use of commercial and adapted communication

platforms, the problem of data protection of education

participants has significantly worsened. And without

the formation of competencies not only in terms of

citizenship of the student, but also in terms of the

protection of such communication and personal data,

digital citizenship is impossible.

2 RESEARCH METHODS

For the purposes of this study, we have reviewed the

literature of recent years, reflecting the results of

various studies, including national ones, focused

primarily on identifying the reasons for the decline in

https://orcid.org/0000-0000-0000-0000

the quality of education and the depressing situation

with the protection of personal data and "digital

traces" of students.

3 DISCUSSION

Digital citizenship (DS) is the responsible use of

information and communication technologies by a

person to interact with their community. The

peculiarity of the existence of this concept is its

dependence on the availability of access to digital

technologies. In total, there are nine main

technologies, the totality of which determines the

presence of DS, partial or complete. These are: digital

access, digital communication, digital commerce,

digital literacy, digital ethics, digital law

(responsibility for actions on the Internet), digital

rights and duties, digital health (physical and

psychological well-being in the digital world) and

digital security (including cybersecurity with the

protection of personal data (The Nine Elements of

Digital Citizenship, 2016). As the experience of the

Mukhametzyanov, I.

Digital Citizenship and the Student’s Digital Footprint: Questions of Application, Promotion and Data Protection.

DOI: 10.5220/0010616600003170

In Proceedings of the International Scientiﬁc and Practical Conference on Computer and Information Security (INFSEC 2021), pages 12-16

ISBN: 978-989-758-531-9; ISSN: 2184-9862

 2023 by SCITEPRESS – Science and Technology Publications, Lda. Under CC license (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0)

COVID-19 pandemic has shown, not all people in the

world have digital access, and its quality often simply

does not allow them to conduct any activities in a

digital format. Accordingly, when talking about the

"digital inequality" of citizens in access to

technology, it is necessary to proceed from the

understanding of "digital citizenship" as a feature of

the organization of the state and self-organization of

citizens in the first place, and as a manifestation of

human activity in the second place (Mossberger &

Tolbert, 2021). Initially, human activity on the

Internet could have an anonymous nature, since it did

not provide for a significant "digital footprint". With

the development of information and communication

technologies and their penetration into all aspects of

human life, there is less and less opportunity for

anonymity, and because of the use of social networks

and tracking of network addresses of access devices

and other traces of human activity people can already

forget about anonymity. And in this regard, it is

necessary to educate a person not just about their

citizenship, but also their digital citizenship, since

their virtual copy, to one degree or another, is an

integral part of the person themselves. The concept of

digital citizenship is inextricably linked to digital

literacy and digital rights. However, they did not

develop at the same time, digital literacy became

formalized as digital citizenship, but without digital

law it has no legitimation in the conditions of modern

society (Pangrazio and Sefton-Green, 2021).

At present, the DS is an informal concept and can

have both negative and positive interpretations based

on the goals and results of using digital tools. The

intermediate stage of this activity is creation of the

"digital footprints". The DS is formed in the process

of learning skills and techniques of performing

activities in the digital environment. In these

conditions, parents and teachers have a significant

influence on the formation of the DS. The cause of a

negative impact on a child can be a situation of

cyberbullying and knowledge of the rules of digital

citizenship can help prevent it. Knowing how to

properly use modern technology can help prevent

technology addiction and its associated health

consequences. In this regard, special importance is

attached to communication between the teacher and

the student's parents, teaching the student the rules of

activity in the digital environment, protecting

personal information, and handling the "digital

footprint".

3.1 The "digital footprint". Concept

and Classification

The digital transformation of education with the

implementation of educational interaction in a digital

format implies the use of the "digital footprint" (DF)

of the student for educational purposes. In the

broadest possible sense, a DF is a trace of a person's

online activity and nothing more. In the scope of this

work, these are traces of online activity, that was done

for educational purposes. Quite conditionally, the DF

can be divided into positive and negative, active and

passive, formalized and unformalized, open and

hidden.

When talking about the active and passive DF, it

is necessary to talk about information, including that

about a person, posted in any way on the Internet

consciously. In the case of passive information, it is

secondarily placed, indirectly touching a particular

phenomenon or person. Today, an extremely large

amount of information is posted on the Internet and

we are no longer interested in the fact of its existence,

but in the fact and ways of its transformation for the

purposes of a particular person or subject of human

relations. The sequences of actions, the logic of

decision-making, forecasting of results, risk

assessment in the use of information become topics

of interest. As a result, the digital footprint allows

people to create a psychological portrait of a person

and predict a variety of aspects of their behaviour. An

active form of forecasting can be providing a person

with information and evaluating their actions based

on their previous DF. In the passive form, the

assessment of any actions in a changing environment

takes place. This allows for evaluation and prediction

of actions in extreme conditions.

The positive and negative aspects contain a

representation of the information by the person

themselves. It is placed by them consciously, in order

to publicly demonstrate certain aspects of their

activities. If it is placed by someone in order to

discredit the person, while having their own DF

(explicit or hidden), then it has a negative character.

If information or activity is posted or

implemented under a specific name, it is explicit.

Data or news can be posted or used under fictitious

names and respectively are hidden in nature.

Formalized information is usually placed in the

format of positive information, such as a portfolio or

resume. Unformalized information is placed without

a specific structure and can be either positive or

negative.

Digital Citizenship and the Student’s Digital Footprint: Questions of Application, Promotion and Data Protection

3.2 Positive and Negative Aspects of

the Digital Footprint

The specifics of human behaviour patterns in

communications, in certain actions, in behaviour in

society and preferences show the personality

characteristics of each person. Considering them,

based on their DF, it is possible to predict the actions

of a person in a certain situation with a high degree of

probability. Thus, if this happens without the

knowledge of the person, there is a violation of their

privacy and the data obtained can be used for illegal

purposes. It is possible to model a situation in which

the actions of the subject can be destructive or self-

destructive, but the inevitability of these actions, even

for the object of manipulation themselves, is due to

all their previous experience. An example is the

destructive network communities, when the very

inclusion of a person in its composition already shows

readiness for certain actions.

Speaking about the positive orientation of the DF,

we can talk about prediction, for example, of the

student's learning behaviour (Azcona, Hsiao &

Smeaton, 2019). At the system level, the use of the

DF allows us to implement continuity and integration

of educational levels, effectively organize and

manage the educational process, and the most popular

direction at the present time, manage the educational

system (Mantulenko, 2021). When evaluating the

formal data of the intermediate and final educational

assessments and analysing the methods used to solve

the task based on the DF, the teacher gets the

opportunity to objectively evaluate the students'

understanding of certain subject areas. On the basis of

this, they can either provide the student with a

different way to solve the task, or change the task

itself, break it into stages, which ultimately will allow

individualizing learning using positive and objective

feedback. It is also possible to stimulate the student

by using the methods and areas of activity that are

most preferable for them in order to create positive

DF for them as an aspect of subsequent effective

employment (Buchanan, Southgate, Scevak & Smith,

2018; 12 Reasons to Research a Job Applicant’s

‘Digital Footprint’, 2021). There is no doubt that the

COVID-19 pandemic period has changed all students

in one form or another. Without a choice, they had to

learn with the use of digital technologies that change

the traditional way of the education system, change

the priorities in education, change the systems of

assessing the quality of educational activities, but one

thing is certain, that this change can no longer be

reversed (Nordmann et al., 2020). It should be

remembered that the activities of the student and

teacher within the framework of the DL have a certain

"digital footprint" that requires attention in terms of

data protection and privacy (Zwitter, 2014).

Particular importance should be attached to this based

on the possibility of analysis of the DF with the use

of artificial intelligence and creation of a

psychological portrait of a person, possible reactions

in a changing environment and possible psychiatric

problems. Which, in the end, provides the possibility

of manipulating a person (Bidargaddi et al., 2017).

Mass distance education during the COVID-19

pandemic was in itself a significant stress factor for

the mental health of students at all levels of education.

According to studies of more than 1.2 million

children and adolescents, based on self-reports,

10.5% said that they had signs of psychological

distress (Qin et al, 2021).

3.3 Digital Footprint Management and

Personal Data Protection

The very existence of DF has both a negative and a

positive assessment. At present, in the conditions of

an extremely weak level of knowledge in terms of

information protection, the negative aspect of its use

dominates. In these conditions, the formation of skills

of maintaining confidentiality of activity on the

Internet and the removal of data of the DF, the

knowledge of the possibility of their illegal use is not

only important for ensuring a comfortable life for a

person, but also for ensuring its security. In relation

to the education system, the accumulation of the

student's DF in the information systems of the

educational organization (EO) and the prediction of

their educational activities based on their DF and real

behaviour allow the EO to form a personal

educational database. There is no doubt that this

process should be based on the informed consent of

the student, both regarding the process as a whole and

collection of specific data groups (Jones, 2019).

The basis for the protection of personal data are

the national acts in this field. In Russia, these are

Federal Law No. 152-FZ from 27.07.2006 "On

Personal Data", Federal Law No. 436-FZ from 29

December 2010 "On the Protection of children from

information that harms their health and development"

and a number of other legislative acts. But the

presence of these regulations does not ensure the

effectiveness of their application, first of all, because

of their extremely inactive popularization in the

education system for individuals, the main consumers

of digital content. An example of specialized

regulations is the California’s SOPIPA (Student

Online Personal Information Protection Act, 2014),

INFSEC 2021 - International Scientiﬁc and Practical Conference on Computer and Information Security

which prohibits companies from using student’s

personal data obtained as a result of educational

activities on the Internet and using educational

platforms, transferring it to third parties and using it

for personalized advertising. When using educational

platforms and applications by persons under 13 years

of age, it is mandatory to have informed parental

consent. The communication platforms used during

the pandemic (Zoom and others) fall under the scope

of this law when used for training purposes. At the

same time, showing the screen to third parties outside

the classroom and teacher community is a disclosure

and distribution of personal data. And in many ways,

the security of the students' DF in this case is assigned

to the administrator of a particular conference, since

only they determine the authority and level of access

to the personal data of all participants. Based on this,

the level of competence in this area of the teacher

when using any communication platforms and

applications in distance learning should not only be

formed, but also certified by the relevant services in

the field of information security.

At the same time, it is noted that popular

educational platforms do not protect the data of

children in distance learning, and there are 1.6 billion

children worldwide. Permission to use those

platforms for educational purposes does not contain

guarantees of information security. Fifty-eight

percent of them are highly risky when ensuring the

digital privacy of children. A third of the platforms

had security issues, including the use of software with

known vulnerabilities and insecure Internet cookies,

while three quarters contained ad tracking, including

sharing information with Facebook and Google

(“Lockdown Learning Platforms “Put Children’s

Privacy at Risk”, 2020).

A special case in terms of data protection and

illegal use of the DF of any participant in the

communication is the use by students of personal or

work devices for Internet access of their parents for

educational purposes. This allows attackers to gain

access to the personal and commercial information of

students' parents through virtually unprotected

educational communications. A large number of

applications from the period of 2020 in the area of

online commerce and home delivery of goods

practically do not provide data protection. A 2019

study of students in grades 3-8 shows that they most

often use the same password for most applications

and programs on the Internet (58% of students in

grades 3-5 and 78% of students in grades 6-8). More

often, they have one or two passwords for school

activities and three or four passwords for home

activities. Most common are passwords with an

average length of 7 (grades 3-5) and 10 (grades 6-8)

characters of weak and medium reliability, and only

13% of children have strong passwords. This is due

to the weak development of cognitive and linguistic

abilities. And training in this area should be aimed

both at creating effective and reliable passwords, as

well as at learning secure ways to store them

(Choong, Theofanos, Renaud and Prior, 2019).

4 CONCLUSIONS

The provisions on digital citizenship and the student's

digital footprint that are considered in this paper are

inextricably linked with the concept of digital

communication, i.e. interpersonal communication

with the use of information and communication

technologies. The use of technologies for educational

purposes allows to remove a significant amount of

organizational and managerial problems from the

organizers of education. This was demonstrated

during lockdown and distance learning during the

pandemic. The difficulties of this period were both

informational in terms of the content of education in

digital form, and communicational – in regards to the

use of open communication platforms. And this has

led to both an unusually large increase in the digital

footprint of all participants in the learning process,

and a significant reduction in data privacy. Both, in

essence, are components of effective digital

citizenship, not declared, but real. Even with the end

of the pandemic, digital learning will remain as a

component of blended learning, and it is in the digital

part of it that the "Achilles' heel" of digital citizenship

remains. It is the unwillingness and inability to

implement all the elements of citizenship in an

environment, that is safe for a person, to protect the

"digital footprint" of the student and teacher, to

individualize learning based on the analysis of the

"digital footprint". The pandemic has shown that no

educational system in the world has paid due attention

to the component of blended learning at the student's

place of residence. There is no regulation of the

organization and management of educational

activities of students at their place of residence, and

there is no coordinated activity of the educational

organization and the student's parents in ensuring the

security of education and data protection. There is no

doubt that all educational programs at all levels of

education should include these components, since

now they will determine not only the child's ability to

learn, but also their ability to become a citizen.

Digital Citizenship and the Student’s Digital Footprint: Questions of Application, Promotion and Data Protection

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INFSEC 2021 - International Scientiﬁc and Practical Conference on Computer and Information Security