Egypt: Tens of Thousands of Students Exposed to Risk of Harm

Egypt: Tens of Thousands of Students Exposed to Risk of Harm

The Egyptian government and a private British company, Academic Assessment Ltd., exposed vast amounts of personal information about tens of thousands of children online for months, Human Rights Watch said today. The exposure violates children’s privacy, exposes them to the risk of serious harm, and appears to violate the data protection laws in both Egypt and the United Kingdom.

The sensitive data included over 72,000 records of children’s names, dates of birth, gender, home addresses, email addresses, phone numbers, schools that they attend, grade level, personal profile photos, and copies of their passport or national ID. It was left unprotected on the open web for at least eight months. The records identified 110 children by name as having some form of disability.

“By carelessly exposing children’s private information, the Egyptian government and Academic Assessment put children at risk of serious harm,” said Hye Jung Han, children’s rights and technology researcher and advocate at Human Rights Watch. “For months, they allowed anyone with an internet connection to find out who these children are, where they live and go to school, and how to contact them directly.”

The children had taken the Egyptian Scholastic Test (EST), which is required by Egyptian universities for secondary school