It turns out that Chromebooks distributed by schools are being monitored by AI, once again highlighting the violation of students' privacy
The Associated Press and The Seattle Times jointly reported that a Vancouver public school accidentally released about 3,500 confidential student documents to a reporter without editing them, revealing that AI is being used to monitor student activities in schools across the U.S. This monitoring was intended to protect students from mental health and the risk of mass shootings, but it has led to concerns about student privacy issues, especially the exposure of LGBT children.
Student privacy vs. safety: The AI surveillance dilemma in WA schools | The Seattle Times
How AI monitors school Chromebooks and what it means for privacy, security | AP News
https://apnews.com/article/ai-school-chromebook-gaggle-goguardian-securly-25a3946727397951fd42324139aaf70f
Documents accidentally released in a Freedom of Information request about surveillance technology reportedly showed that students were using their school laptops for personal research and other purposes to help them cope with anxiety in their personal lives.
One student searched for 'Why does my boyfriend hit me?' on a search engine, while another gay young man blogged about his conflict with his homophobic parents, writing that he just wanted to be himself. Other young people wrote about depression, heartbreak, suicide, addiction, bullying, eating disorders, and more. The materials also included poems written by students, essays for university assignments, and role-playing sessions with AI chatbots.
All of these thousands of cases were detected by AI-enabled surveillance software, which immediately alerted Vancouver school officials. The AI-detected online activity information of students was stored in a form that was accessible to any school staff member without a password.
While in many cases, AI monitoring tools have helped counselors uncover concerns young people might not have otherwise disclosed, in some cases they have risked outing LGBTQ+ kids, undermining trust between students and school staff, and making schools less safe for kids.
'We believe that not monitoring kids is like letting them have an unguarded digital playground without fences or supervision,' Jeff Patterson, founder and CEO of Gaggle Safety Management, which developed software to track the online activity of Vancouver students, told media.
The school also apologized for accidentally releasing the documents unedited, and stressed that monitoring tools are essential to keeping students safe. 'You can't put a price on protecting students,' said Andy Meyer, principal of Skyview High School in Vancouver. 'Anytime we can be aware that there's a problem and be able to intervene, we think that's a very positive thing.'
Many parents were not informed of these initiatives; Tim Leyland, a parent of two teenagers, only found out about them when his daughter asked if she could bring her own laptop to school instead of the school's.
Her daughter, Zoe, said when she found out about Gaggle's surveillance tools, she was scared she might be called into the staff room for searching for female genitalia if she looked up information about menstruation. She was so scared she couldn't use her school Chromebook for personal research.
Mr. Leyland (center) is interviewed with his two children.
Gaggle's algorithms first detect potential signs of problems such as bullying, self-harm, suicide, and school violence, and then send screenshots to Gaggle employees. If the problem is deemed serious, Gaggle will notify the school. If the problem is imminent, Gaggle may call school officials directly, or if no one answers the phone, Gaggle may call the police.
Dasia Foster, whose child attends schools in the district that was monitored by Gaggle, applauds the effort to keep students safe but worries about the invasion of privacy.
'I know this is pretty awful, but what options did I have? Should I pull my child out of school? I would be sad if my daughter's personal information was leaked, but I don't want her to be the victim of a mass shooting or commit suicide,' Foster said of the school district's mismanagement.
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