Newfound Interest
Practical ways of raising awareness
CLICK. CLICK. Google is the master of search. It tracks our moves online and uses complex algorithms to predict our next click. Let’s see how good they are. Below is their profile of my “interests”:
The fact that Google closely monitors my activities online is not entirely surprising; after all, Google makes its money off ads targeted to users’ ostensible interests. Much more shocking, however, was learning that many schools conduct similar surveillance of students — they install tracking software on school computers, read emails sent from school-issued accounts, monitor students’ location and attendance with radio frequency identification chips, etc. Does my school know what Google knows?
Last summer, while working as an intern at the Berkman Center for Internet & Society, I clicked on the headline of a CNN article entitled, “California school district hires firm to monitor students’ social media.” The article read: “A suburban Los Angeles school district is now looking at the public postings on social media by middle and high school students, searching for possible violence, drug use, bullying, truancy and suicidal threats.” And Glendale is by no means the only district to conduct social media monitoring. The more I read, the more I saw how widespread student tracking has become across the U.S. (in Huntsville, Alabama; Chattooga County, Georgia;
Jackson County, North Carolina; Washington County, Maryland; and Kent, Washington; among countless others) and how few students and families know about it.
I began to wonder: How many schools do this? What do schools track and what do they do with this knowledge? And who determines the rules? Curious, I asked my supervisor at Berkman to allow me to shift my focus to
student privacy issues.
I found that few standards exist to govern how schools monitor students. It’s a gray area. On one hand, student tracking has some real benefits: it can help thwart violence or self-harm. At the same time, however, surveillance
programs have the potential to restrict students’ fundamental rights, such as free speech and privacy.
Schools have good intentions, but it’s murky territory. We need a national discussion between students and school administrators to figure this out.
So how do we ensure student safety without jeopardizing students’ freedoms? It’s my goal to answer this question by creating a draft policy that provides guidelines for how schools and students can agree on monitoring practices.
This fall, I persuaded my school to let me conduct an independent study on the evolving history of student privacy and free speech in the U.S. Seeking a better understanding of existing legal precedents, I started with Tinker v. Des Moines (1969), which established students’ First Amendment rights in public schools. Tinker remains one of the most-cited cases related to student expression online.
How many schools do this? What do schools track and what do they do with this knowledge? And who determines the rules?
I am beginning the process of meeting with students, families, teachers, and administrators within my school community. By assessing their awareness of this issue, their concerns, and their ideas, I hope to find common ground. I want to ensure that everyone has a voice, especially students.
If it were up to me, the first step I’d take to solve this student privacy issue would be to increase the transparency of schools and monitoring firms. More openness and communication from administrators and officials would allow students and their families to better understand schools’ monitoring practices.
I hope that my work can serve as a foundation, not only for my school’s monitoring policy, but also for other schools and educational institutions, and contribute to a wider or national discussion about student surveillance practices.
While it’s possible little could come of my exploration, it’s amazing to think that a few clicks on the Internet could lead to a more candid and focused dialogue on student privacy.
Hannah Offer is a freshman at Yale University. This piece was originally published here.
