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UK Specific comment: remember in UK there is no cost to receive sms messages I work as a teacher and use bulksms.co.uk to send text messages to my students who

UK Specific comment: remember in UK there is no cost to receive sms messages I work as a teacher and use bulksms.co.uk to send text messages to my students who are 19+. I use an Intranet based system with a fixed set of non-editable messages to send to 18 year olds and under because of the UK child protection laws. Students respond well to sms messages compared to email. If someone was missing, a quick sms results in a phone call explaining absence. I pre-pay for 1000 messages every couple of months out of my own pocket because it makes my job easier.

DanBC 15y ago
Can I ask how you protect, and show that you're protecting, people's phone numbers? How do you handle the data protection compliance stuff? Or is that something that you don't have to concern yourself with because of the use case or somesuch? thanks.
- keithpeter 15y ago
  I'm in the UK. I ask adult students if it is ok to send them text messages, everyone says yes basically, I've had one opt out in about 5 years. The Colleges were I work have enrollment forms that include the relevant data protection clauses as they collect addresses/phone numbers for contact purposes anyway. I use a password protected Web site to send messages which keeps an audit of the text of the messages sent, and I have not enabled the answer facility so these are 'one way' messages. I think that is more secure for the students than using, say, my own phone. Under 19 its official channels only, and the College system has 'standard messages' that we click a button on to send from the Intranet. The student database has phone/address details and we have all the legal permissions to contact both students and their parent/guardian as needed. Basically I'm in a regulated professional role where contacting students is regarded as good practice.

3 ms·

UK Specific comment: remember in UK there is no cost to receive sms messages I work as a teacher and use bulksms.co.uk to send text messages to my students who

by keithpeter 15y ago

DanBC 15y ago
Can I ask how you protect, and show that you're protecting, people's phone numbers? How do you handle the data protection compliance stuff? Or is that something that you don't have to concern yourself with because of the use case or somesuch? thanks.
- keithpeter 15y ago
  I'm in the UK. I ask adult students if it is ok to send them text messages, everyone says yes basically, I've had one opt out in about 5 years. The Colleges were I work have enrollment forms that include the relevant data protection clauses as they collect addresses/phone numbers for contact purposes anyway. I use a password protected Web site to send messages which keeps an audit of the text of the messages sent, and I have not enabled the answer facility so these are 'one way' messages. I think that is more secure for the students than using, say, my own phone. Under 19 its official channels only, and the College system has 'standard messages' that we click a button on to send from the Intranet. The student database has phone/address details and we have all the legal permissions to contact both students and their parent/guardian as needed. Basically I'm in a regulated professional role where contacting students is regarded as good practice.