rsiddharth rsiddharth@ninthfloor.org has given his suggestions to improve the article :

I've written down my suggestions for improving the article below.

It would be great if you can open a merge request for this at git.fosscommunity.in/fsfi/fsfi. Email me directly if you need help.

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Title: Educational Institutes should use exclusively freedom-respecting software

We urge educational institutes and webinars to stop requiring students to use proprietary software, and to adopt free/swatantra software (free as in freedom), which is [readily available]https://www.gnu.org/software/free-software-for-education.html.

How about re-phrasing this:

We urge educational institutes to [use free (as in freedom)/swatantra software that respects students' freedom and privacy ][fsw-edu].

[fsw-edu]: https://www.gnu.org/software/free-software-for-education.html

Remote education does not require [giving up rights to freedom and privacy] https://www.fsf.org/blogs/community/remote-education-does-not-require-giving-up-rights-to-freedom-and-privacy.

Snip this and put it in "Relating Links"?

For example, the Department of Scientific Computing, Modeling, and Simulation, Savitribai Phule Pune University uses exclusively free software for education https://fsf.org.in/case-study/unipune/ which shows that it is entirely possible to use exclusively free software in education.

It's not clear from https://fsf.org.in/case-study/unipune if they exclusively use free software, how about re-phrasing this to:

For example, the Department of Scientific Computing, Modeling, and Simulation, Savitribai Phule Pune University [has been using free/swantra software tools for more than 20 years and it's currently helping other departments at Savitribai Phule Pune University adopt free software][cs-unipune].

[cs-unipune]: https://fsf.org.in/case-study/unipune

A speech by Richard Stallman on why schools should use exclusively free software can be watched and downloaded from [here] https://audio-video.gnu.org/video/richard_stallman_speech-sina.com-2005-09.ogg.

Snip this and put it in "Relating Links"?

What is Free/Swatantra Software?

Free/Swatantra software means that you, as a user, have four essential freedoms: (0) to run the program as you wish, (1) to study and change the source code so it does what you wish, (2) to redistribute exact copies, and (3) to redistribute copies of your modified versions. (See the [free software definition]https://www.gnu.org/philosophy/free-sw.html.)

... as user, have [the freedom to run, study, modify, and redistribute the program].

[free-sw]: https://www.gnu.org/philosophy/free-sw.html

With these freedoms, the users (both individually and collectively) control the program and what it does for them. When users don't control the program, we call it a “nonfree” or “proprietary” program. Proprietary software is an injustice to the user because it puts its developer or owner in a position of power over its users https://www.gnu.org/philosophy/free-software-even-more-important.html. They use this power [to spy on the users, restrict them, censor them, and abuse them] https://gnu.org/malware/.

For example, nowadays, all the major proprietary operating systems for the general public [spy on the users]https://www.gnu.org/proprietary/proprietary-surveillance.html.

proprietary-surveillance.html covers not just operating systems, so:

For example, many [propietary programs are known to unjustly snoop on its users][ps]

[ps]: https://www.gnu.org/proprietary/proprietary-surveillance.html

Why should educational institutes use free software?

Any computer user should use free software for their own freedom, but educational institutes have [additional reasons to insist only on free software]https://www.gnu.org/education/edu-schools.html.

Some reasons are listed below:

• Software should [respect the user's freedom]https://www.gnu.org/philosophy/shouldbefree.html of its

users .

• [Proprietary Software Is Often Malware]https://gnu.org/malware/.

• Educational Institutes have a moral responsibility to respect students' freedom and teach students to appreciate it -- for their

own future and their country's future.

• Educational institutes often expose students to [privacy-invading technology]https://www.eff.org/wp/school-issued-devices-and-student-privacy

without any real choice to escape from it. Educational institutes should respect students' privacy. Free Software is controlled by its users and therefore it can protect them from surveillance.

• Students cannot learn from proprietary software because it is secret, and it prohibits learning as well as sharing while free

software encourages learning and sharing which align with the mission of the schools.

• Proprietary software makes the institute dependent on the owner of the software while free software allows the institute to be in

control.

Free software can save schools money, but this is a secondary benefit. Savings are possible because free software gives schools, like other users, the freedom to copy and redistribute the software; the school system can give a copy to every school, and each school can install the program on all its computers, with no obligation to pay for doing so. Schools can also do necessary modifications as per their requirements without further cost.

Problems with commonly used proprietary tools for education

A lot of institutes rely on Google's Gmail and Microsoft's Outlook for their email communications. Offering Google or Outlook accounts is an injustice because: a. Google, Yahoo, Microsoft, Apple, and AOL are [surveillance systems]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PRISM_%28surveillance_program%29.

b. Gmail [makes psychological profiles]https://www.alternet.org/2013/12/google-using-gmail-build-psychological-profiles-hundreds-millions-people/?paging=off not only of Gmail users but of everyone who sends mail to Gmail users.

c. Microsoft Outlook is known to block incoming mails from other email service providers [without providing a reason]https://disroot.org/en/blog/microsoft_hostility. [Another link]https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/outlook_com/forum/oemail-osend/outlookcom-is-blocking-all-incoming-mails-from/fe2790d9-4ab5-498b-a8f6-46dbfd3a09e4 .

Proprietary software is an injustice to the user and gives developer power over the users which leads to further injustices as we discuss in this section.

Snip the above paragraph?

Zoom, Google Meet, and Microsoft Teams are proprietary software generally used in live classes and webinars. All of them use their power over the users to collect personal and location data. Zoom [collects a lot of data]https://studentprivacymatters.org/what-you-need-to-know-about-zoom-for-education/ on students. Microsoft Teams and Google also [snoop on their users]https://www.theverge.com/2020/5/1/21244058/google-meet-microsoft-teams-webex-personal-data-collection-privacy-policy-concerns. We urge teachers to help their students in resisting against proprietary videoconferencing platforms; some ideas are [listed here] https://www.gnu.org/education/teachers-help-students-resist-zoom.html.

A lot of times, students are asked to join a WhatsApp group for important announcements which is an injustice to the student because WhatsApp is a nonfree program. Further, WhatsApp [does not respect user's privacy]https://www.forbes.com/sites/carlypage/2021/01/08/whatsapp-tells-users-share-your-data-with-facebook-or-well-deactivate-your-account/.

Google Classroom is another commonly used nonfree program which is an [assault on student's privacy] https://gomindsight.com/insights/blog/privacy-with-google-classroom-education-industry-news/. Google Forms are used for filling personal details which sends data to Google, [a surveillance company]https://stallman.org/google.html#surveillance known to track and profile users. Google Drive [mistreats users]https://www.vice.com/en/article/9kgwnp/porn-on-google-drive-error as well.

Chromebooks for schools [collect far more data on students than is necessary, and store it indefinitely]https://www.eff.org/wp/school-issued-devices-and-student-privacy.

Many exam websites, institute and webinar websites report all their visitors to Google by using the Google Analytics service, which [tells Google the IP address and the page that was visited]http://www.pcworld.idg.com.au/article/434164/google_analytics_breaks_norwegian_privacy_laws_local_agency_said/.

Many conferences/webinars host their site on Google and that site reports details of every visitor to Google.

Snip the above paragraph?

G-Suite is another data collection tool which is used in education and needless to say it also collects a lot of data on each user: Search in [this link]https://web.archive.org/web/20170222113929/https://gsuite.google.com/faq/security/, for "Do you store multiple customers' information on the same server?", they clearly say "Yes, we store multiple customers’ information on the same serving infrastructure." This means G-Suite puts the students under surveillance and institutes should avoid it.

I think storing customers' data on the same infrastructure and surveillance of the customers when they use G-Suite are two different issues.

Snip the above paragraph?

Further, educational institutes are [invading student's privacy]https://www.dw.com/en/anti-plagiarism-tools-a-new-age-of-truth-at-university/a-45475465 through cheating-detection systems. Requiring students to install a proprietary monitoring software in their own computers is an injustice. Monitoring software, by design, runs even when the owner of the computer tries to stop it from running long after the exam is finished and takes full control of the computer which [subjects users to abuse] https://twtext.com/article/1252225044861693954. These monitoring apps [collect a lot of data on students]https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2020/08/proctoring-apps-subject-students-unnecessary-surveillance such as: Recorded patterns of keystrokes, facial-recognition, microphones and cameras record students’ surroundings such as biometric data, full name, date of birth, address, phone number, scans of government-issued identity documents, educational institution affiliation, and student ID numbers, records of operating systems, make and model of the device, as well as device identification numbers, IP addresses, browser type and language settings, software on the device and their versions, ISP, records of URLs visited, and how long students remain on a particular site or webpage etc. The algorithms of these monitoring software could easily flag students who don’t have control over their surroundings as "suspicious" [which could further penalize them]https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2020/04/01/online-proctoring-college-exams-coronavirus/ . No student should be forced to make the choice to be put into surveillance continuously or to fail their course.

Free Software Recommendations If you are a parent, we urge you to talk to your child's school regarding the privacy concerns and raise awareness about free software. If you are a student, then you can form a group of students who are concerned about their privacy and freedom, and write collective letters to administration and teachers to raise awareness. You can learn from people who [successfully resisted]https://www.gnu.org/education/successful-resistance-against-nonfree-software.html#content the use of nonfree software in the institutes.

If you're a parent, talk to your child's school about the importance of using free software that respects the freedom and privacy of students and push for its adoption. If you're a student, team up with your peers and write collective letters to the school raising awareness about free software and urge them to provide a free software infrastructure for your school...

We list freedom-respecting software that can be used in education:

Here's a list of freedom-respecting...

Operating system: [GNU/Linux distros] https://www.gnu.org/distros/free-distros.html

Online Classes- Jitsi, BigBlueButton. Check [this] https://fsf.org.in/article/better-than-zoom/ for more details.

Instant Messenger- Element, Quicksy or Conversations. Check [this] https://fsf.org.in/article/better-than-whatsapp/ for more details.

Uploading videos- [PeerTube] https://directory.fsf.org/wiki/PeerTube

E-learning platforms- [Moodle] https://directory.fsf.org/wiki/Moodle.

Recording Lectures- [OBS]https://directory.fsf.org/wiki/Obs-studio

Sharing notes, lecture videos etc. - [Nextcloud]https://directory.fsf.org/wiki/Nextcloud, Lufihttps://upload.disroot.org/

Digital writing pad- [Xournal] https://directory.fsf.org/wiki/Xournal

Document editor: Libre-Office https://directory.fsf.org/wiki/LibreOffice

Email- 1. Institutes can self host their own server 2. [Tutanota's] https://tutanota.com software is freedom-respecting and you can install it in your own server or pay Tutanota for plan which suits your needs.

The GNU website lists free software that can be used in schools and educational institutions of all levels https://www.gnu.org/software/free-software-for-education.html. The Free Software Foundation keeps a comprehensive database of educational software at the Free Software Directory https://directory.fsf.org/wiki/Category/Education.

Freeduc-USB https://usb.freeduc.org/index-en.html is a bootable USB stick that contains useful applications for the classroom.

When an educational institute provides laptops to students, they should choose laptops which can run fully free software-- check [RYF laptops by FSF]https://ryf.fsf.org/products?category=1 and [LibreTech] https://libretech.shop/. For other hardware which can run fully free software, check https://h-node.org/.

Educational resources should be 'free' as in freedom

Poster here: https://static.fsf.org/nosvn/appeal2020/spring/7-blackhole.png

In today's age, free sharing of scientific knowledge has become the [worst conceivable crime] https://www.privateinternetaccess.com/blog/how-did-the-free-sharing-of-scientific-knowledge-and-culture-become-the-worst-crime-our-justice-systems-could-think-of/ one can think of. Scientific journals like Elsevier lock up academic research behind paywalls and prohibit sharing with others. Since, the academic research is funded by public money, it should be available free of cost as well as free in freedom. For arguments on how the principles of software freedom apply to academic papers, please check [this essay]https://www.gnu.org/philosophy/push-copyright-aside.html. Educational resources-- like videos, recorded lectures, academic papers [should be released under free/swatantra licenses only]https://www.stallman.org/articles/online-education.html. The GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL) https://www.gnu.org/licenses/fdl.html is a free license that can be used for educational works. Creative Commons has two free licenses: CC-BY and CC-BY-SA for this purpose. If you release your academic papers under a free license, it will give everyone an opportunity to learn from you. Some Free Learning Resources are mentioned [here] https://www.gnu.org/education/edu-free-learning-resources.html. We must not allow scientific knowledge to get locked.

Free Software adoption in Indian education IT syllabus of class XI in Maharashtra now includes free software https://fsf.org.in/news/mh-schools-floss/. The state of Kerala migrated more than 2,600 public schools to free software https://www.itschool.gov.in/. Unfortunately, Kerala is the only state in India where IT education is imparted over a Free software operating system https://www.academia.edu/10236947/IT_at_SCHOOL_PROJECT_OF_KERALA_A_LANDMARK_IN_ICT_INITIATIVE_IN_GENERAL_EDUCATION and other states should also take initiative in this direction. A free software named Tux Paint http://directory.fsf.org/wiki/TuxPaint used at VHSS Irimpanam school, Kerala, where 11 and 12 years old students exercised the freedom to learn how the program works and modify the program, which demonstrates that even non programmers or children, can actually influence and improve information technology when software freedom is granted https://www.gnu.org/education/edu-software-tuxpaint.html. School-age children were able to effectively and quickly exercise software freedom with Tux Paint in the PC-in-the-Village Experiment, Goa http://www.digitalequalizer.org/kids.htm

Some of the educational institutions in India that are using exclusively Free Software:

Ambedkar Community Computing Center (AC3) https://www.gnu.org/education/edu-cases-india-ambedkar.html

Vocational Higher Secondary School Irimpanam (VHSS Irimpanam) https://www.gnu.org/education/edu-cases-india-irimpanam.html

Department of Scientific Computing, Modeling, and Simulation, Savitribai Phule Pune University --- [Statement here]https://fsf.org.in/case-study/unipune/

If you know of other institutes which use free software, please let us know, we would like to add them in this list. If you need help in switching your institute to free software, feel free to [contact us] https://fsf.org.in/contact/, we would be very glad to help you.

Some Related Links: [Richard Stallman's speeches]https://audio-video.gnu.org/ to learn more about free software.

[Sign Free Software Foundation's petition]https://my.fsf.org/give-students-userfreedom to call on school administrators around the world to stop requiring students to run nonfree software.

[Free software enables free science] https://media.libreplanet.org/u/libreplanet/m/free-software-enables-free-science/

[Guri]https://guri.hipatia.net/ - a project for free software in education

Ways in which technology used in education [puts students under surveillance]https://ssd.eff.org/en/module/privacy-students

Schools are [deploying massive surveillance on their students]https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2020/02/schools-are-pushing-boundaries-surveillance-technologies as if they are dissidents of an authoritarian regime

Join Students and Scholars In Speaking Out About the Effects of Mass Surveillance on Campus https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2014/05/join-students-and-scholars-speaking-out-about-effects-mass-surveillance-campus

How Much Surveillance Can Democracy Withstand? https://www.gnu.org/philosophy/surveillance-vs-democracy.html

[Don’t Let]https://www.eff.org/id/deeplinks/2019/10/dont-let-science-publisher-elsevier-hold-knowledge-ransom Science Publisher Elsevier Hold Knowledge for Ransom

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I have incorporated all the comments on the educational institutes articles in the pad here https://pad.disroot.org/p/educationfreesoftware.

After the changes, the section on email in the draft says:

"Email- Institutes can hire a free software consultancy to run their own mail server. For self-hosting mails, Mail-in a-Box https://mailinabox.email/ , iRedMail https://www.iredmail.org/ and Freedom Box https://www.freedombox.org/ are also good options.

...Freedom Box https://www.freedombox.org/ are good options.

Further, the users of the mail server(students, teachers, other staff etc) can use end-to-end encryption so that only the participants of a communication can read the mails.

Thunderbird on desktop/laptop and K9 Mail with OpenKeyChain for Android supports Open PGP. [PEP plugin]https://pep.software/thunderbird/ for Thunderbird and PEP apphttps://www.pep.security/en/ (a modified version of K9 Mail) makes the encryption process automatic and transparent to users without any manual intervention. All a user need to do is start using the app and all mails to other users already using pep will be encrypted automatically. Additionally it also makes key verification easier by comparing a few trust words in person or over phone to verify they keys belong to the person we are talking to and not someone impersonating them. "

I don't think we to delve into how pEp works. How about re-phrasing it like this:

Furthermore, PGP or pEp may be used to encrypt emails to recipients. For information about using PGP see [FSF's Email Self-Defense guide][fsf-esg]; for pEp see [pep.security/docs][pep]. For most users, pEp might be more straightforward to use.

[fsf-esg]: https://emailselfdefense.fsf.org [pep]: https://www.pep.security/docs