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Privacy for Students: Surveillance Self-Defense

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Re: Privacy for Students: Surveillance Self-Defense

#21

Post by commoner »

ElViajero wrote: post #3

> “If authority figures for youth say constant surveillance is OK, what happens when a romantic partner wants access to every message on their phone? Or an employer wants your social media password? Invasive monitoring isn’t acceptable, no matter who tries to do it, and personal privacy matters.” I think that it is even worse than that. In a decade or two, we are going to learn the many cases of sexual abuse that thi…

Certainly already happening:

> Over the next 15 days, the school district captured at least 210 webcam photos and 218 screenshots. They included photos inside his home of Robbins sleeping and of him partially undressed, as well as photos of his father. The district also snapped images of Robbins' instant messages and video chats with his friends, and sent them to its servers.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robbins_v._Lower_Merion_School...

> "Many of the images captured and intercepted may consist of images of minors and their parents or friends in compromising or embarrassing positions, including, but not limited to, in various stages of dress or undress," the lawsuit charges.

https://www.inquirer.com/philly/news/homepage/20100218_Lower...

Re: Privacy for Students: Surveillance Self-Defense

#22

Post by peterburkimsher »

Surveillance in schools is nothing new. The library computers back in the early 2000s had MasterEye, so that teachers could see whether students were using the PCs for homework or games, and block accounts accordingly.

I thought it would get better when I got older, but company Internet is also monitored and controlled through a proxy (ZScaler).

More egregious spying does frustrate me, because it breaks down trust (e.g. my mum reading my emails, or ex-girlfriend lying about having read my emails despite web history proving otherwise).

It does cause a chilling effect, especially when discipline is involved (punishment at a volunteer group for a humorous social media post means I don't post much online any more). I can't install a local web server on the company PC, and didn't even get admin privileges by default. Therefore my creativity has shifted towards hardware, because it's less restrictive.

These policies are not new, they're supported by management/HR/ICT who (perhaps correctly) assume that most people don't know what they're doing, and try to keep people "safe". There are causes worth fighting for, but privacy on other peoples' computers is a privilege that I've given up hope about changing.

Re: Privacy for Students: Surveillance Self-Defense

#23

Post by peterburkimsher »

prepend wrote: post #10

My schools tried to require school owned apple equipment that both restricted actions (couldn’t message with parents or email) and monitored all activity, even when used from home. I forced my own equipment and they tried to install and reinstall various spyware throughout the year. It seems like rather than proposing a basic system of assignments and material and grades, they are trying to treat as a wholly owned ec…

I was the kid in school who told people about rebooting to single-user mode and creating hidden root user accounts :-D

Some people got in trouble for having learned about it and misusing it though >_<

Re: Privacy for Students: Surveillance Self-Defense

#24

Post by chasil »

prepend wrote: post #10

My schools tried to require school owned apple equipment that both restricted actions (couldn’t message with parents or email) and monitored all activity, even when used from home. I forced my own equipment and they tried to install and reinstall various spyware throughout the year. It seems like rather than proposing a basic system of assignments and material and grades, they are trying to treat as a wholly owned ec…

Surprising that schools are requiring additional certs to be added a a device for internet access.

This enables "keybridging" mitm attacks on any TLS connection that trusts the cert. Best load a 3rd-party browser and install it locally, rather than compromise the whole device.

https://nakedsecurity.sophos.com/2013/01/08/the-turktrust-ss...

Re: Privacy for Students: Surveillance Self-Defense

#25

Post by seastonATccs »

Schools in the US are usually required by state law to provide a baseline level of content filtering and auditing on any school operated network, device and accounts. The school district has the right to choose which proxy service to use, but not wether to uses one or not. To get this fixed it has to be done at the state legislative level.

Re: Privacy for Students: Surveillance Self-Defense

#26

Post by mLuby »

I'm fine with school equipment and software being fully locked down, but the facial recognition and automated behavior detection (let alone correction) is way beyond the line.

Why are kids, the ones we're supposed to protect, being used as lab rats here? (Rhetorical—it's because they have no agency and the parents are kept at arm's length. Near-perfect conditions for abuse of power, however well-intentioned.)

What if the student government could declare no confidence in the school administration and have them removed? Would at the very least get more kids interested in civics.

Re: Privacy for Students: Surveillance Self-Defense

#27

Post by cartoonworld »

seastonATccs wrote: post #25

Schools in the US are usually required by state law to provide a baseline level of content filtering and auditing on any school operated network, device and accounts. The school district has the right to choose which proxy service to use, but not wether to uses one or not. To get this fixed it has to be done at the state legislative level.

its hard to see how that requirement extends to audio/video surveillance, MITMing TLS streams, scrutinizing social media with automated software.

But, it may indeed have to be addressed at the legislative level. I have dim hopes for US legislation forcing anybody to un-spy on innocent people.

Re: Privacy for Students: Surveillance Self-Defense

#28

Post by SteveNuts »

peterburkimsher wrote: post #23
prepend wrote: post #10

My schools tried to require school owned apple equipment that both restricted actions (couldn’t message with parents or email) and monitored all activity, even when used from home. I forced my own equipment and they tried to install and reinstall various spyware throughout the year. It seems like rather than proposing a basic system of assignments and material and grades, they are trying to treat as a wholly owned ec…

I was the kid in school who told people about rebooting to single-user mode and creating hidden root user accounts :-D Some people got in trouble for having learned about it and misusing it though >_<

Your school used Linux computers?
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