The protection of human rights of student in school from Covid-Free Setting measures: A study of consent of student in using “Thai Save Thai” platform

Abstract

          The Ministry of Education issued the Ministry's regulation on reopening school in October B.E. 2564  for opening a school under the conditions to be complied with the safety measures for the organization (Covid Free setting), including requiring students to use Thai Save Thai or "TST" platform where personal data of students is collected, used, and disclosed resulting in obligation to refer to  legal basis under the Personal Data Protection Act 2019. Therefore, the objective of this research is to analyze legal issue whether a consent obtained from student under the TST term of use is consistent with conditions under personal data protection law. The research methodology is qualitative research by conducting comparative analysis of Personal Data Protection Act B.E.2562, General Data Protection Regulation of EU (GDPR) and related guidance’s.
          The results indicate that (1) the TST platform requires students to fill out identification, behavioral data, health data, thus affecting the collection of personal data (2) TST Term of use requires consent form student and Thai law stipulates consent principles similar to GDPR but does not set specific criteria for interpretation. However, GDPR provide several criteria for determining freely given consent, e.g., imbalance of power, negative impact, consent for multiple purposes. (3) This research applies four elements of consent to interpret consent under clause 3.3 of TST term of use and found that such consent is inconsistent to personal data protection law criteria. Thus, this research proposes to amend clause 3.3 of TST Term of use to comply with element of consent under data protection law.