Apple factory’s Shanghai workers revolt over ‘draconian’ COVID-19 lockdowns: report; Remote learning apps used in schools tracked kids’ data without their knowledge, report says, and other C-Virus related stories

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Apple factory’s Shanghai workers revolt over ‘draconian’ COVID-19 lockdowns: report

Worker unrest is on the rise at the Shanghai factory of a major supplier for Apple gadgets, with protests at times turning violent in response to draconian “COVID zero” lockdowns.

Workers at the Quanta Computer plant — which makes Apple’s MacBook laptops — have been under strict lockdown for nearly two months with limited supplies as the Chinese government takes drastic measures to keep production online despite a recent COVID-19 case surge.

But the fed-up employees – most of whom are low-wage earners – have reportedly started to revolt against the measures. The unrest has included violent confrontations involving hundreds of workers and the factory’s guards, as well as incidents in which employees have bypassed barriers to seek out basic supplies.

Tensions ran so high last weekend that a group of workers stormed a housing facility to confront Quanta’s Taiwanese managers. The incident led to a lengthy standoff as the workers demanded better pay and an end to the lockdown. --->READ MORE HERE

Sebastian Ballestas sebastianballestas1@gmail.com

Remote learning apps used in schools tracked kids’ data without their knowledge, report says:

When the coronavirus pandemic upended traditional methods of delivering education, school districts across the country and the globe turned to online learning platforms.

It was a quick pivot. Miami-Dade County Schools, for example, switched from in-person learning to fully remote learning in a two-week time frame that overlapped with spring break, offering what many thought would be a temporary fix.

But many of the same platforms used to support teaching during what turned out to be nearly two years of at-home learning tracked students without their knowledge and shared that data with big tech companies like Facebook and Google, which could monetize the students’ information by selling ads to companies that targeted the children, according to a newly released report by the advocacy group Human Rights Watch.

In Miami-Dade Schools, nearly all the online education platforms used during remote learning did so, according to the report.

Researchers analyzed 164 educational apps and websites used in 49 countries, providing the most up-to-date understanding of how these technologies impacted students while they learned from home.

The findings were shared with 13 news organizations across the globe, including McClatchy, the Herald’s parent company. The investigative nonprofit the Signals Network coordinated the consortium, EdTech Exposed, in addition to overseeing additional reporting and review.

The report found that many or most of the online platforms used globally, including those used in Miami-Dade County Public Schools, did the following:

▪ “Monitored children, secretly and without the consent of their parents,” collecting data about them, their families and what they did in the classroom

▪ Installed tracking technologies that, over time, followed children’s’ activities outside of classrooms --->LOTS MORE HERE

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