{"href":"http://player.captivate.fm/services/oembed?url=http%3A%2F%2Fplayer.captivate.fm%2Fepisode%2F53163d45-ef55-42fc-94c2-9a322af2f826","version":"1.0","provider_name":"Captivate.FM","provider_url":"https://www.captivate.fm","width":600,"height":200,"type":"rich","html":"","title":"How student surveillance fails everyone","description":"Last month, when Malwarebytes published joint research with 1Password about the online habits of parents and teenagers today, we\u00a0spoke with a Bay Area high school graduate on the Lock and Code podcast\u00a0about how she spends her days online and what she thinks are the hardest parts about growing up with the Internet. And while we learned a lot in that episode\u2014about time management, about comparing one's self to others, and about what gets lost when kids swap in-person time with online time\u2014we didn't touch on an increasingly concerning issue affecting millions of children and teenagers today: Student surveillance.\nNailing down the numbers on the use of surveillance technologies in schools today is nearly impossible, as the types and the capabilities of student surveillance software are many.\u00a0\nThere\u2019s the surveillance of students\u2019 messages to one another in things like emails or chats. There\u2019s the surveillance of their public posts, on platforms like Twitter or Instagram. There are even tools that claim they can integrate directly with Google products, like Google Docs, to try to scan for worrying language about self-harm, or harm towards others, or drug use. There's also surveillance that requires hardware.\u00a0Facial recognition technology, paired with high-resolution cameras, is often sold with the promise that it can screen school staff and visitors when they approach a building. Some products even claim to detect emotion in a person\u2019s face. Other software, when paired with microphones that are placed within classrooms, claims to detect \u201caggression.\u201d A shout or a yelp or a belting of anger would, in theory, trigger a warning from these types of monitoring applications, maybe alerting a school administrator to a problem as it is happening.\nAll of these tools count when we talk about student surveillance, and, at least from what has been publicly reported, many forms are growing.\u00a0\nIn 2021, the Center for Democracy and Technology\u00a0surveyed teachers in K through 12 schools and simply asked if their schools used monitoring software:\u00a081 percent said yes.\u00a0\nWith numbers like that, it'd be normal to assume that these tools also\u00a0work. But\u00a0a wealth of investigative reporting\u2014upon which today's episode is based\u2014reveals that these tools often vastly over-promise their own results. If those promises only concerned, say, drug use, or bullying, or students ditching classes, these failures would already cause concern. But as we explore\u00a0in today\u2019s episode, too many of\u00a0schools buy and use this software because\u00a0they\u00a0think it will help solve a uniquely American problem: School shootings.\nToday\u2019s episode does not contain any graphic depictions of school shootings, but it does discuss details and the topic itself.\nSources:\nSchool Surveillance Zone, The Brennan Center for Justice at NYUStudent Activity Monitoring Software Research Insights and Recommendations, Center for Democracy and TechnologyWith Safety in Mind, Schools Turn to Facial Recognition Technology. But at What Cost?,\u00a0\u00a0EdSurgeRealNetworks Provides SAFR Facial Recognition Solution for Free to Every K-12 School in the U.S. and Canada, RealNetworksUnder digital surveillance: how American schools spy on millions of kids, The GuardianFacial recognition in schools: Even supporters say it won't stop shootings, CNETAggression Detectors: The Unproven, Invasive Surveillance Technology Schools Are Using to Monitor Students, ProPublicaWhy Expensive Social Media Monitoring Has Failed to Protect Schools, SlateTracked: How colleges use AI to monitor student protests, The Dallas Morning NewsDemonstrations and Protests: Using Social Media to Gather Intelligence and Respond to Campus Crowds, Social SentinelNew N.C. A&T committee will address sexual assault, Winston-Salem JournalBYU students hold \u2018I Can\u2019t Breathe\u2019 protest on campus, Daily HeraldThrown bagels during MSU celebration lead to arrests, Detroit Free Press\nShow notes and credits:\nIntro Music: \u201cSpellbound\u201d by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)Li","thumbnail_width":300,"thumbnail_height":300,"thumbnail_url":"https://artwork.captivate.fm/f730925a-6577-44ea-bdc8-bdbc2061c6e6/lock-and-code-logo-2021-ar2rs.jpg"}