“I dream of wayward gulls and all landless lovers, rare moments of winter sun, peace, privacy, for everyone.” [William F. Claire]
My former manager once told me she thought of me as Jiminy Cricket, the conscience of our tech and business change project.
I’ve always enjoyed making systems work for people, helping people avoid working more for the system.
I’m passionate about defending our human rights in an increasingly machine-driven world.
Privacy is a fundamental human right recognized in the UN Declaration of Human Rights and the UK Human Rights Act 1998, and is at the heart of my campaign work calling on the Department for Education for better handling of national pupil data that I coordinated at defend digital me since 2015.
I supported the development of Guidelines on Children’s Data Protection in an Education Setting, adopted in 2020 by the Council of Europe Committee on Convention 108.
As a teen I considered becoming a graphic designer or a forensic scientist. Aged six I wrote a chalk letter to the Queen which I posted secretly, stampless, asking her for world peace. In between then and now I didn’t do much about it. Now I better appreciate that if we want to see change, we need to make it happen.
While on a work break for maternity I was an interviewer for the writers’ magazine The View From Here and for seven years before it closed its doors in October 2014. (Personal favourites were with Barry Cunningham, Patrick Gayle and Isabel Allende but there were lots of favourites.) Thus I was known as The Amateur Book Blogger from 2006, and my twitter handle became TheABB.
Since 2014 almost anything I write has been about government plans to use personal data from education, health, and other parts of the public sector, for purposes beyond our reasonable expectations. I’ve listened to lots of voices at many public events, shared and encouraged others’ engagement, and spent 2 years on the ADRN panel discussing uses of administrative data in research.
My personal posts here may be about anything that grabs my attention. Writing related things. Sometimes art, clouds or bees. I love volcanoes, and deserts; thinking about economics and politics. But mainly data things.
My blog title & header are inspired by L. Susan Stebbing. I’m inspired by others’ thoughts, random acts of kindness, and the sea. Travel light. Love films. I’m always learning something new.
My favourite mug is shown in my header & twitter account: L. Susan Stebbing’s cover from her book, Thinking to some Purpose.
“This metaphor seems to me to be appropriate, because potted thinking is easily accepted, is concentrated in form, and has lost the vitamins essential to mental nourishment. […] the critical questioning at times of our potted beliefs is necessary for the development of our capacity to think to some purpose.”
Publications
Guidelines
Council of Europe. (2021). Children’s data protection in an education setting: Guidelines. [link] and its preparatory report, Council of Europe. (2019). Children’s data protection in education systems: Challenges and possible remedies. [link]
Book chapters
Persson, J. (2024). Age as a Gatekeeper in the UK Online Safety Agenda. In Children, Young People and Online Harms: Conceptualisations, Experiences and Responses (pp. 169-181). Cham: Springer International Publishing. [link]
Persson, J. (2022). Building a rights-respecting environment in state education. Education Data Futures: Critical, regulatory and practical reflections. Digital Futures Commission, 5 Rights Foundation. [digital link] and book in print format [link].
Persson, J. (2021). A day-in-the-life of a datafied child–observations and theses. In Aufwachsen in überwachten Umgebungen (pp. 293-312). Nomos Verlagsgesellschaft mbH & Co. KG.
Journals
Persson, J. (2023). Artificial Intelligence and UK Education: Research, the Redistribution of Authority, and Rights. Int J Artif Intell Educ 34, 62–72 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40593-023-00347-0 [link]
Persson, J. (2022). Data protection is not enough: children need better digital rights law in education. European Public Mosaic (EPuM). Open Journal on Public Service, 2022, no. 16, pp56-68, https://raco.cat/index.php/EPuM/article/view/436550
Reports
Council of Europe (2024). Preparatory Study for the Development of a Legal Instrument on Regulating the Use of Artificial Intelligence Systems in Education. (Co-authored with Beth Havinga, and Wayne Holmes). [link]
Council of Europe. (2024). Artificial intelligence and education: A critical view through the lens of human rights, democracy and the rule of law – 1st working conference (conference highlights report). Available at: https://rm.coe.int/artificial-intelligence-and-education-1st-working-conference-conferenc/1680b29998
Child Rights International Network. (2023). Privacy and protection: A children’s rights approach to encryption. (co-authored) [link]
Council of Europe (2022). Artificial intelligence and education: A critical view through the lens of human rights, democracy and the rule of law. [Link] (Co-authored with Wayne Holmes, Irene-Angelica Chounta, Barbara Wasson and Vania Dimitrova ).
The State of Biometrics 2022: a review of policy and practice around biometric data in UK education. Defend Digital Me (2022) v1.7 (co-authored with P. King) [link]
The words we use in data policy: putting people back in the picture (2021) Defend Digital Me. [link]
The State of Data 2020 report: mapping children’s data in state education in England (2020) Defend Digital Me. [link]
The State of Data 2018 report: with lessons for policymakers (2018) Defend Digital Me. [link]
The state of data 2018: Views from staff with IT and data protection responsibilities on GDPR readiness in schools in England. (2018) Defend Digital Me. Available at: https://defenddigitalme.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/Staff-views-on-GDPR-readiness-in-schoolsv5.pdf
Articles
Collinson, J. and Persson, J. (2022) What does the ‘best interests of the child’ mean for protecting children’s digital rights? A narrative literature review in the context of the ICO’s Age appropriate design code. Communications Law, 27 (3). pp. 132-148. ISSN: 1746-7616 [link]
Collinson, J., Persson, J., & Dahl, G. (2021). A reflection on the UNCRC Best Interests of the Child principle: in the context of The Age Appropriate Design Code. Defend Digital Me. https://defenddigitalme.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/A-Reflection-on-the-Best-Interests-of-the-Child-in-the-context-of-the-Age-Appropriate-Design-Code-05102021-v2.0.pdf
Another brick in the wall – can we save child rights from school surveillance? (2019). openDemocracy. [link]
Who’ll protect children’s rights as we leave the EU? (2019). openDemocracy. [link]
School census changes add concerns to the richest education database in the world. (2016) Parenting for a Digital Future. LSE. [link]
Mandatory web monitoring in schools opens a slippery can of worms. (2016). Schools Week. [link]
Why is the government putting health watchdogs on the leash of promoting economic growth? (2015). openDemocracy. [link]
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