Human Rights Watch (HRW) has condemned the exposure of vast amounts of personal information about tens of thousands of Egyptian children online.

Development Diaries reports that the sensitive data, according to HRW, 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.

The records, it was gathered, identified 110 children by name as having some form of disability.

‘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’, HRW said in a statement on its website.

The children had taken the Egyptian Scholastic Test (EST), which is required by Egyptian universities for secondary school students studying under the American Diploma, an English-language high school curriculum in Egypt.

The unprotected data contained 356,797 files, and included children who applied to take the EST between September 2020 and December 2022.

Also, the unprotected data included the names and locations of the universities that students applied to, their test scores, and whether they had paid their test registration fees.

The rights organisation noted that the exposure of such confidential information jeopardises the safety of the children.

‘The risk of misuse and exploitation of their data exposes children to serious harm, including identity theft, blackmail, and sexual exploitation, and may have long-term consequences that affect their opportunities’, HRW noted.

It is unclear exactly when, why, or how the government sold or transferred ownership of the EST and its students’ data to Academic Assessment.

HRW urged the government to urgently establish the data protection authority and give it the mandate and resources to protect everyone’s data privacy, including that of children.

Source: HRW

Photo source: Surfing The Nations