By making a few simple changes to devices and accounts, you can maintain security against outside parties’ unwanted attempts to access your student's data as well as protect your privacy from those you don’t consent to sharing your information with. Getting started is easy. Here’s a guide to the few simple changes you can make to protect yourself and your information online.

As a parent, you have control over the personal information companies collect online from your students under 13. The Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act gives you tools to do that. The Federal Trade Commission, the nation’s consumer protection agency, enforces the COPPA Rule. If a site or service is covered by COPPA, it has to get your consent before collecting personal information from your child and it has to honor your choices about how that information is used.

When it comes to privacy there is personal privacy — information we share with others whether family members, social media friends or the public, and there is data privacy — information that is collected by websites, apps, and institutions. We have a great deal of control over our personal privacy.