As 2025 drew to a close, I noticed a trend on LinkedIn, a trend that I was tempted to engage with but just couldn’t bring myself to do. I saw many people turning to the CoAuthor Rewind service to create cool personalised summaries of their achievements, and I saw many people engaging, liking and commenting on others summaries. These tools promise something delightful, an elegant, AI-generated reflection of your year, packaged in a way that feels both professional and personal. It’s easy to see the appeal: who wouldn’t want a neat, shareable narrative of their successes? And the stats on peoples posts seemed to back this up, with people engaging with these posts.
But beneath the surface of this seemingly harmless activity lies an important question: what are we giving away, and what habits are we forming?
The Allure of Convenience
The popularity of CoAuthor Rewind is no surprise. In a world where time is scarce and digital tools promise efficiency, the ability to summarise a year’s worth of work in minutes feels revolutionary. These tools can even serve as a motivational boost helping people reflect on progress and celebrate milestones, plus can serve to engage other professionals through LinkedIn creating or solidifying professional networks.
Yet, the very ease that makes these tools attractive is also what makes them risky especially given the fact users are providing access to their LinkedIn profile data in order for the summary to be produced. Also their use, and the ease with which they create attractive and useful content can create habits that erode caution over time.
Rewind CoAuthors Privacy Policy
I took a quick look at the privacy policy to see if this might allay my concerns; It didn’t. It included a vague data retention period and statement in relation to whether any user content might be used to train AI models. For those in the UK or EU, the fact the organisation is based in the US and “may process information in the United States and other countries” is a concern especially given the lack of any mention of model clauses or GDPR. The “may” element of this alone makes me nervous; Don’t they know where they process their data? The fact the “Services do not current respond to do not track signals” was another concern as was the the vague statement as to the third party service providers and vendors which the service might disclose your data to. As third party risk and incident grow it is increasingly important to be aware of what third parties are being used by a given vendor.
Now none of the above would necessarily stop me using the service, but they are all risk factors which need to be considered. I wonder how many of those using the service to create their little 2025 rewind looked at the terms and conditions or the privacy policy and actively considered the risk?
The Risk Isn’t Always Immediate
It’s tempting to dismiss these concerns as minor. After all, users are consenting to share their data, and the vendor does have a privacy policy in place. But as well as the data protection issues there are also human issues. As one person shares does this normalise the behaviour of sharing and possible not checking the data protection risks, and as others join the crowd, do we then see collective normalisation of this behaviour? Is there a danger that ease and convenience, plus a bit of herd mentality leads people to stop asking critical questions?
In schools, if staff become accustomed to uploading personal data without scrutiny, what happens when the same habits extend to student records? Even anonymised data can carry risks if aggregated or misused.
Balancing Innovation and Responsibility
This isn’t an argument against tools like CoAuthor Rewind. In fact, they represent an exciting evolution in how we interact with technology. Lets be honest, they are also good fun. But it does highlight the delicate balance between embracing innovation and safeguarding privacy.
In education, this balance is never a zero-sum game. We don’t have to choose between being creative and being secure. Instead, we need to cultivate digital habits that combine curiosity with caution. That means embedding data protection awareness into professional development, encouraging critical thinking, and ensuring that policies keep pace with emerging trends.
A Teachable Moment
For schools, this trend might offer a valuable opportunity to discuss with staff and students:
- What data is being shared?
- Why is it valuable?
- But what are the risks?
- How can we enjoy the benefits of technology without compromising trust?
By framing these conversations around real-world examples, we can move beyond abstract warnings and help people develop practical strategies for safe, responsible use.
Conclusion
The rise of CoAuthor Rewind is a reminder that technology’s greatest strength,, in its ability to make life easier, can also be its greatest weakness if it encourages complacency. It also highlights balance, and how nothing is only positive or negative. As we celebrate the creativity these tools enable, we must ask: how do we ensure that what feels fun today doesn’t become a risk tomorrow?
Technology and Learning