Sharon Lurye of The Associated Press and Claire Bryan of The Seattle Times report:
Thousands of American schools are turning to AI-powered surveillance technology for 24/7 monitoring of student accounts and school-issued devices like laptops and tablets.
The goal is to keep children safe, especially amid a mental health crisis and the threat of school shootings. Machine-learning algorithms detect potential indicators of problems like bullying, self-harm or suicide and then alert school officials.
But these tools raise serious questions about privacy and security. In fact, when The Seattle Times and The Associated Press partnered to investigate school surveillance, reporters inadvertently received access to almost 3,500 sensitive, unredacted student documents through a records request. The documents were stored without a password or firewall, and anyone with the link could read them.
Here are key takeaways from the investigation.
Read what they found at AP.