Students' biometric data collected by Microsoft Teams ‘for weeks', NSW Education ‘unaware'
A data stuff-up has resulted in the biometric data of NSW school students being collected by Microsoft Teams – with the Education Department not realising the issue 'for weeks'.
A new feature that allowed biometric data to be collected through Microsoft Teams was rolled out by the tech giant in mid-March, and used on school-issued computers.
But the department was not aware until early April – at which point they had the feature switched off.
A Microsoft spokesperson told NewsWire individual biometric data was not accessible to anyone – reiterating it was encrypted and 'stored securely per our compliance and privacy standards'.
Minister for Education and Early Learning Prue Car is looking into the incident.
'The Minister has asked for a full briefing on the incident from the Department,' a spokesperson told NewsWire.
'We want to assure parents and students that the function is now disabled and that no biometric data was held by the Department.'
Any data collected during the weeks in which the feature was active has since been deleted, the department said.
'The Department of Education does not collect student biometric data,' a spokesperson said.
'A new Microsoft Teams feature that allowed voice and facial enrolment for people entering Teams meetings was quickly disabled across our network, and any face or voice recognition profiles that were created have been removed.'
Shadow education minister Sarah Mitchell said there had been a 'complete breach of privacy and trust for every student and parent' in NSW.
'Not only do we not know how long the data was held, but we also have not been told what the data was used for while it existed,' she told NewsWire.
'What's even more concerning is the fact that it appears there are parents out there who are not even aware this occurred – and that is simply not good enough.
'We need to know exactly how many students have been caught up in this and who they are so they can be notified immediately.
'It's also scary that there's no indication of who had access to this sensitive data while it was available.'
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