Colin Lecher reports: Fayette County Public Schools, a 24-school district in Georgia, reopened its classroom doors last month. As at many schools around the country, officials in Fayette have concerns about safely bringing students back to school amid a pandemic—and they’re turning to surveillance technology for help. …. But is this surveillance technology useful at preventing…
Category: Youth & Schools
Proctoring Apps Subject Students to Unnecessary Surveillance
Jason Kelley and Lindsay Oliver of EFF recently wrote: With COVID-19 forcing millions of teachers and students to rethink in-person schooling, this moment is ripe for an innovation in learning. Unfortunately, many schools have simply substituted surveillance technology for real transformation. The use of proctoring apps—privacy-invasive software products that “watch” students as they take tests or…
Back to School Special: Recordings, Photos, Kids, and Parental Consent
Liisa Thomas & Snehal Desai of SheppardMullin write: In this remote era, companies are increasingly being approached by their business teams with ideas about products and services that involve video or audio recordings of their consumers. It may also involve letting people manipulate photos of themselves. Sometimes, those recordings and pictures are of children. Content…
Fearing coronavirus, a Michigan college tracks its students with a flawed app
Zack Whittaker reports: Albion College, a small liberal arts school in Michigan, said in June it would allow its nearly 1,500 students to return to campus for the new academic year starting in August. Lectures would be limited in size and the semester would finish by Thanksgiving rather than December. The school said it would test both staff and students…