CALLS FOR INVESTIGATION ON STUDENT DATA BREACH BY MICROSOFT TEAMS
SYDNEY 18 MAY,2025
The NSW Opposition is calling on the Minns Labor Government to launch an investigation after student data was collected by Microsoft Teams.
According to reports, the voice and facial biometric data of school students was collected using the Teams video conferencing app in March, and the Department of Education was unaware of what was going on for a month before the feature was switched off in April.
NSW Shadow Education Minister Sarah Mitchell
Shadow Education Minister Sarah Mitchell said the situation is extremely concerning.
“This is a complete breach of privacy and trust for every student and parent across NSW and the Minns Government needs to step in and get to the bottom of what happened here,” Mrs Mitchell said.
“Not only do we not know how long the data was held, but we also have not been told what the data was used for while it existed.
“What’s even more concerning is the fact that it appears there are parents out there who are not even aware this occurred – and that is simply not good enough.”
There are also reports the Education Department did not answer questions about the number of students and staff affected.
“The Education Minister needs to come clean to teachers, students and parents about the level of this catastrophe that happened on her watch,” Mrs Mitchell said.
“We need to know exactly how many students have been caught up in this and who they are so they can be notified immediately.
“It’s also scary that there’s no indication of who had access to this sensitive data while it was available.
“Every parent across the state should be worried about this and we need proper answers from the Department and the Minister.”
