It’s irresponsible to install software on a child’s computer which can be used to watch them in the privacy if their bedroom. Even if the school district does not actually watch underage children at night, it opens the door for criminals to do so.
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It is WILDLY irresponsible to operate under a mantra of “if you’ve got nothing to hide, you should not fear surveillance.”
If you disagree, by all means, post your credit card information and home address. Unless you’re doing something you shouldn’t with them, that is?
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I’m guessing it will be something along the lines of “We don’t discuss individual cases” and then they hang up
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it’s not mentioned what spyware was installed on the ipads, kinda curious if anyone knows
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sadly, significant restrictions of the civil rights of students at school is pretty well established constitutional law. It’s a shame he hasn’t been able to get some parents involved who actually understand the importance of giving teens unfettered access to information and have the ability to put pressure on the school policies from outside the rights-limited student body.
Bringing your own, fully functional internet by phone, is really the best solution when the school district and it’s technology “experts” are determined to prevent students access to information.
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That’s a good point. The mantra should be “Fear the surveillance”. Actually that’s a stupid mantra. But they’ve got a duty of care to their students, and this involves blocking sites that you wouldn’t want a 13 year old to view.
I realise I’m not getting my point across there.
Not sure if we can get FIRE on this but it’s worth a shot.
Channel 12? You want people to call into local cable broadcasting? And I will tell you that calls to the local TV stations won’t yeild much either. And really, you are infuriated by the fact that a young teen can’t do what he wants on equipment that doesn’t belong to him, on a network that isn’t his, all of which he himself has never paid a cent for? And exactly where are his parents in this ittle drama? Seems to me that after the second meeting with the school, something would have been said by this bright young man about it to his folks. And I agree with knelmes, this is one side of a story; it seems to be missing certain parts for it all to ring true.
Show where it says they can do that. There is next to no information in the article about what the ‘spyware’ does.
That’s fine. They’ll know that people are watching. And then it’ll be up to them if they’ve got something to hide or not.
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Umm… No. You show me where there is assurance that the spyware can’t turn on the camera and record. We know that school districts in other locations have been found doing this already so I think it reasonable to lay the burden on the school here.
If you look at their website, precious little is said about what functionality the spyware has. I think it’s up to the school to prove any monitoring software used is safe. However, one thing we do know, the software takes control of the camera and locks the student out of being able to use it.
Take a look for yourself http://www.wayzata.k12.mn.us/MyWay
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Did you not read the part where they said they spent money on ipads?
That’s pretty irresponsible right off the bat.
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Touche, sir.
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The author or publisher of this article doesn’t mention giving the school a chance to comment on said article (gotta love citizen journalism!). Give them a chance before assuming that this ‘spyware’ can do that.
By the way, if this ‘spyware’ is actually an MDM solution, I’m pretty sure you can’t view the camera.
I’m infuriated that the school is wasting time and money on pointless firewalls, censorware, and spyware in their technology while wasting even MORE time and money harassing a kid for being smart enough to get his education in any way he can. They are paying authoritarian fools to be ineffective and inefficient. They are the reason we can’t have nice things.
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Abandon your Constitutional rights in exchange for temporary access to a consumer product valued at a few hundred bucks. Seems legit.
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No constitutional rights gone - they can still access unfiltered Internet on a personal device, if their parents are lax.
But then I am a UK citizen working in the UK, so I’m not going to invoke the almighty constitution whenever there’s something I don’t like happening.
Give it time.
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Kid’s got a good solution: his own hardware and Internet connection.
Sheesh! Back in my day, I had to manufacture an actual master locker key out of metal to get suspended from school.
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