VOLUNTEER WITH US

Would you like to volunteer to help our civil liberties campaign to keep checks and balances on the use of personal data in the education sector?

Do you care about the effect of technology in education, and its implications for human rights in England?

Are you passionate about the right to privacy?

Please volunteer some time for us!

defenddigitalme is a non-profit and non-partisan campaign group leading the protection of privacy for children in education in England. We are a tiny, dedicated team committed to making a difference and standing up for data rights in education. We support parents and young people with questions. We work with policy makers. We want to restore children’s rights that have been ignored in a sector where teachers and parents awareness has not kept pace with technology and the facts have been hidden about how national pupil data are handled at the Department for Education. Our efforts rely on detailed research, patience, and the secure knowledge that privacy is a human right – if you share our passion for privacy, truth, and freedom, we want to hear from you. We want to make all pupil data safe, fair and transparent.

CURRENT POSITIONS

We are recruiting volunteers to work from home for:

Research: we have a need for user research, technical skills and those interested in literature reviews. In a research role, we will support you to investigate some of the most commonly used education apps in England’s schools for example. You can read a privacy policy and know what to look for with basic data protection and privacy rights knowledge. You can determine what is age-appropriate design and have a working knowledge of how apps function, can be bought, accessed, and used. Or perhaps you can analyse how something is built or summarise research papers.

OR

Social media, press and communication support: this role is open to anyone with some prior experience and the ability to work from home. It may include press monitoring, help running our social media, developing online campaign material, help drafting press releases and and working with press.

OR

Video editor: Help us produce campaign support videos, conference videos and interviews. If you have basic video skills, and can use your own equipment, we’d give you an opportunity to see your work used across our social media and help us showcase issues and share news. See our examples here of highlights from Parliamentary debate or simple interviews.

Volunteer applications will be considered at any time, and without fixed duration, though less than 3 hours a week is likely to not fit with the project’s timing.

We are looking for volunteers with:

• Interest in technology and human rights
• An academic background or ambition in social science, computing, law, communications, child development and/or special educational needs, or another relevant field
• At minimum a basic grasp of data protection law and privacy rights knowledge
• An ability to volunteer reliably for an agreed number of hours per week or to deliver a specific project aim.
• Your own computer / laptop

What we can offer:

• We will reimburse any pre-agreed travel costs or direct expenses that arise for meetings or research work and ad-hoc costs as they arise to be agreed in advance. We can also discuss a fixed rate for fixed projects.
• Experience working as part of a campaign team passionate about privacy and committed to influencing national policy and practice for the better.
• You’ll be contributing to making a difference to children’s rights in education, and bring clarity and consistency across the education sector. We believe that matters.
• 18 or over? University students? Perhaps we can help you with something different on your CV.

TO APPLY

• If you are on Twitter, we recommend a DM to make first contact. Our DMs are open.
• If not, or then on request, please send no more than one paragraph with bullet points or text in brief; about you, your experience and why you are interested in which role to: jen [at] defenddigitalme [dot] org
• Please state what you would like to contribute to and why you have the appropriate skills and interest.
• Let us know what your availability is and when you would be able to start, and include a contact telephone number so we can get in touch to discuss next steps.

We are not recruiting for paid consultancy or Advisory Council positions at the moment.

Consultancy rates

Data Protection and Legal Support: we are seeking support for urgent preparation of Data Protection Impact Assessments and Legal Support. Please get in touch if you want more details about the paid roles.

Advisory Council Members: we are expanding, and seek the support of a wide range of external experts and experience as we grow. Please get in touch if you want more details about the role. Members of our Advisory Council may be professionals and academics, parents and activists, with direct or indirect experience of education and technology in the UK and public sector. Experience may come from teaching to being a school governor, your own research, campaigns, or work with children. Technology, privacy, data protection, legal and political experts may also give us advice about a range of issues within our campaigns. Our aim is for the council to ensure that our policies are well informed and will help us to keep our strategy and vision on track for a sustainable long term future. Members of the Advisory Council will give defenddigitalme advice about a range of issues and we may hold very different views. We are non-partisan.