Mark Keierleber writes:
Amid warnings from lawmakers and civil rights groups that digital surveillance tools could discriminate against at-risk students, a leading nonprofit devoted to the mental well-being of LGBTQ youth has formed a financial partnership with a tech company that subjects them to persistent online monitoring.
Beginning in May, The Trevor Project, a high-profile nonprofit focused on suicide prevention among LGBTQ youth, began to list Gaggle as a “corporate partner” on its website, disclosing that the controversial surveillance company had given them between $25,000 and $50,000 in support. Meanwhile Gaggle, which uses artificial intelligence and human content moderators to sift through billions of student chat messages and homework assignments each year in search of students who may harm themselves or others, published a webpage noting the two were collaborating to “improve mental health outcomes for LGBTQ young people.”
Read more at The74. Significantly, Keierleber updated his post:
Hours after the publication of this article Friday, The Trevor Project announced in a tweet it would return a $25,000 donation from the student surveillance company Gaggle, acknowledging widespread concerns about the monitoring tool’s “role in negatively impacting LGBTQ students.”
Read the remainder of the update, too, at The74.