Delhi school teachers fight attendance app over privacy fears

A teacher gives a lesson inside a classroom following the reopening of schools at 50% capacity after months of closure due to the coronavirus disease (Covid-19) outbreak, at a government school in New Delhi, India. With the attendance app, the level of surveillance from tracking and accessing data cannot be justified as a means to log attendance, said Jain. — Reuters

As Covid-19 shuttered India’s schools and overwhelmed its hospitals, teachers in Delhi were roped in for emergency duties – from handing out food rations to staffing vaccination centres, often at great risk to themselves.

But many baulked when told to download an attendance app on their mobile phones that could track their location – adding to hefty surveillance measures in the capital’s schools that critics say infringe the privacy of students and staff.