French Court Smacks Remote Learning Software Company for Pervasive Surveillance of Students
upstart writes:
A worldwide pandemic trapped students in their own homes to stop the spread of the coronavirus. They didn't ask for this. Neither did educators. But educators made the worst of it in far too many cases.
Aptitude tests and other essentials for continued funding (and bragging rights) were now out of their control. Any student sitting at home had access to a wealth of knowledge to buttress what they may have actually retained from remote instruction.
Leveling the playing field was the goal. In practice, that meant turning the most sacrosanct of private places - students' homes and bedrooms - into heavily surveilled spaces... all in the interest of preventing cheating.
Laptop cameras monitored rooms and students' movements during testing. Internet connections often contributed more to passing grades than students' knowledge as educators (and their preferred tech partners) viewed inconsistent or dropped connections as indicators of attempted cheating. Malware deliberately installed by schools monitored internet usage before, during, and after tests.
A bedroom is not a classroom, even if that's where the educating is taking place temporarily due to pandemic restrictions. But that's how it was perceived and a bunch of opportunistic spyware purveyors rushed to fill the perceived "fairness" void with surveillance software that even the most inveterate stalker might consider too invasive.
Proctorio was on the forefront of this education-adjacent bedroom surveillance. It was particularly enthusiastic about stripping students of their privacy. When it was criticized for going too far, it went further, issuing legal threats and bogus DMCA takedown notices to its detractors.
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