Biometric data, including students’ facial and voice profiles, was collected across New South Wales public schools for weeks via Microsoft Teams before the state’s Department of Education became aware of the issue and acted to disable it.
According to 9News, the data collection was triggered in mid-March when Microsoft quietly activated a new “voice and face enrolment” feature by default in its Teams video conferencing app. The feature creates biometric profiles to improve meeting experiences by identifying who is speaking and enhancing audio quality. It also feeds information into Microsoft’s CoPilot AI to improve transcription and meeting summaries.
However, the NSW Department of Education was not informed about the change and only switched off the feature in early April after being alerted. A spokesperson confirmed that the feature was disabled and any collected biometric profiles were deleted within 24 hours of discovery.
“The Department of Education does not collect student biometric data,” the spokesperson reiterated. “Any face or voice recognition profiles that were created have been removed.”
Shadow Education Minister Sarah Mitchell described the incident as a “complete breach of privacy and trust for every student and parent”. Speaking on 2GB Radio, she slammed the lack of transparency, noting that many parents were still unaware the data had even been collected.
“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,” she said.
“What’s even more concerning is that it appears there are parents out there who are not even aware this occurred – and that is simply not good enough.”
Mitchell has called for a full investigation and urged NSW Education Minister Prue Carr to take immediate action to identify how many students were affected, who had access to the data, and whether parents will be formally notified.
Despite the department’s swift response once notified, it remains unclear how many students and staff were impacted during the weeks the feature remained active.
Microsoft Teams is widely used across NSW public schools as a core digital learning platform, promoted by the department as a “one-stop communication platform” for classes, video lessons, assignments and collaboration. The department had previously encouraged educators to “unlock the potential of Microsoft Teams in your classroom”.
The incident has raised broader concerns about the risks of third-party technology updates being automatically rolled out in sensitive environments like schools without prior consent or oversight.
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