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Tell HN: My kid's school installed spyware and I can't remove it

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Re: Tell HN: My kid's school installed spyware and I can't remove it

#201

Post by Melatonic »

So do not sign into his school account? That sounds like they are requiring an MDM be installed on all devices used to access school resources. This is standard security practice.

When you do a full reset (there are multiple types on Chromebooks) it should remove everything. If you sign back into that school account, however, it will re-add it.

If you create another account (not your school) then it should work as normal. You would need to contact the IT team at your school to find out if they setup this as a full device MDM (and if your chromebook is enrolled or not) or if it is just MAM mode and monitors things when using the school account.

Re: Tell HN: My kid's school installed spyware and I can't remove it

#202

Post by op00to »

serf wrote: post #156
op00to wrote: post #147

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Please don't follow this advice. Frothing at the mouth about spyware on your kids computer will immediately be dismissed as insane ravings, and possibly get a visit from your local child safety organization. I recommend reaching out to your child's teacher, and ask to get connected with the IT team at the school to explain what's going on.

>Please don't follow this advice. Frothing at the mouth about spyware on your kids computer will immediately be dismissed as insane ravings, and possibly get a visit from your local child safety organization. I don't think parent described 'frothing at the mouth', and furthermore the concept of "I shouldn't speak out otherwise I may paint myself as a target for child protective services" is so subversive and nu-speak…

Speaking out is not something that puts you at risk. Showing unstable behavior by escalating a simple technical support issue into a rant about ‘spyware’ at some board of Ed meeting tends to raise eyebrows though.

Asking “Does anyone know how to refer these people to law enforcement for prosecution?” regarding a technical support issue is not respectful or orderly behavior.

Re: Tell HN: My kid's school installed spyware and I can't remove it

#203

Post by Waterluvian »

n8cpdx wrote: post #134
quadrifoliate wrote: post #116

> I bought him a Chromebook for schoolwork, but also for other private things. When we logged in... This is why you need to pay attention to the technology choices that you make, and that your schools make. Chromebooks are designed from the ground up to be locked-down dystopian spyware once you "log in" to them with a specific Google account. For heaven's sake stop buying any more Chromebooks. The correct solution he…

> Call into the school's board meeting during public comment, and make it loud and clear that the school is installing spyware on students' Chromebooks. Share your technical credentials and the method by which you found this. Just some comments on the political aspect of this, since the HN crowd tends to not be so good at that part: - Following this advice and using a tone that even resembles the tone of the comment…

I have a huge smile reading this comment. Thank you. Far too often the tech community gets totally lost in their own world. A world that 99% of people don’t inhabit.

Re: Tell HN: My kid's school installed spyware and I can't remove it

#204

Post by Dylan16807 »

wildzzz wrote: post #104
MrWiffles wrote: post #60

I haven't used a Chromebook before because I've always suspected this kind of malfeasance is inevitable, but I wonder... Could you just rip out the disk device (nvme/etc) and shove a blank one in there? As long as you never used the backdoored Google account again, at least you could re-use the device for other purposes (albeit with a different OS most likely). Not optimal I agree, but could that be a viable option?…

Its been a few years since Chromebooks have had swappable disks. There used to be some high priced models that supported user upgrades but then the OEMs figured out that no one wants to spend a fortune on a Chromebook so everything is soldered in now. Since what is being installed isn't actually malware but just some enterprise spyware, the easiest solution is to just wipe it, log in as a user unassociated with the s…

> There used to be some high priced models that supported user upgrades but then the OEMs figured out that no one wants to spend a fortune on a Chromebook so everything is soldered in now.

It can't be that simple because I had a pretty cheap model a few years ago that had a replaceable sata m.2 drive.

Re: Tell HN: My kid's school installed spyware and I can't remove it

#205

Post by Dylan16807 »

thethimble wrote: post #170

GoGuardian CEO here. Lots of misinformation in this thread. Chrome extensions are attached to your Google account. Your son logged into his Chromebook with his CPS account which in turn installed the GoGuardian chrome extension. The simplest solution here is to just log on to your Chromebook with a personal account. No enterprise policy will be applied.

> They suggested signing in with a different account, but when I do that, I get the error message "This account is not allowed to sign in within this network."

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30911927

Re: Tell HN: My kid's school installed spyware and I can't remove it

#206

Post by platinum1 »

sreevisakh wrote: post #166
Ansil849 wrote: post #109

> I did a full factory reset, signed in to his account again, and now the system is once again locked down. > So now I'm in the position where I have to ask permission from a local government entity to please let me install stuff and don't monitor the computer I bought and paid for. I don't understand, this sounds like an issue with the account, not with the Chromebook. Does this spyware persist on this device even i…

> I don't understand, this sounds like an issue with the account, not with the Chromebook. While it does sound like an issue with the account, the unusual part is that Chromebook hands over the control of a device you own to someone else, just because you logged in to some account. Call me old fashioned, but an OS or device that does this is a vulgar anti-consumer design. I get it that consumers should accept it as a…

The "control of the device" hasn't been handed over to anyone. If you log into another account, or go into guest mode, GoGuardian will not be present. In fact, you couldn't find out if GoGuardian was installed on another account you aren't logged into, because every account has all user data encrypted. The school won't be able to see anything about non cps.edu accounts - they don't know if they exist, what the email addresses were, etc.

There is no concept of installing or running programs outside of a login on ChromeOS. There is also only one form of device ownership, and that is device enrollment (which is not what is being described by OP), and the set of policies that are applied to enrolled device. Logging into an account cannot apply device policies.

cps.edu is who's enforcing that while you use a cps.edu account, you have to use their software (only while logged into that account or browser). BYOD devices are still yours and you can remove the account with a press of a button.

Re: Tell HN: My kid's school installed spyware and I can't remove it

#207

Post by car_analogy »

op00to wrote: post #202
serf wrote: post #156

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Please don't follow this advice. Frothing at the mouth about spyware on your kids computer will immediately be dismissed as insane ravings, and possibly get a visit from your local child safety organization. I don't think parent described 'frothing at the mouth', and furthermore the concept of "I shouldn't speak out otherwise I may paint myself as a target for child protective services" is so subversive and nu-speak…

Speaking out is not something that puts you at risk. Showing unstable behavior by escalating a simple technical support issue into a rant about ‘spyware’ at some board of Ed meeting tends to raise eyebrows though. Asking “Does anyone know how to refer these people to law enforcement for prosecution?” regarding a technical support issue is not respectful or orderly behavior.

Calling unremovable* spyware (the term is accurate, no matter how insane you think it sounds) a "technical support issue" is like calling surveillance cameras installed in your home an "improper furnishing issue".

*Edit: sokoloff may be correct, and the spyware is not unremovable. Still, the analogy holds.

Re: Tell HN: My kid's school installed spyware and I can't remove it

#209

Post by ironchef »

Extropy_ wrote: post #178
n8cpdx wrote: post #134

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Call into the school's board meeting during public comment, and make it loud and clear that the school is installing spyware on students' Chromebooks. Share your technical credentials and the method by which you found this. Just some comments on the political aspect of this, since the HN crowd tends to not be so good at that part: - Following this advice and using a tone that even resembles the tone of the comment…

Totally agree with you in every way except your last point. IIRC, the administrators of a Google Workspace domain have almost complete control of the accounts created under it. For example, they're able to make sure that each account comes with preset Chrome Web Store extensions or they can limit or completely disable your control over your account. So, unless the school board locked down the Chromebook itself, (whic…

If I recall, the language that's used in situations like these is something along the lines of "Personal electronic devices will be governed under this policy when such devices are attached to the CPS network." So .. it's a "as long as you're going to connect to the CPS controlled network / resources, you must have software protections / controls in place".

Re: Tell HN: My kid's school installed spyware and I can't remove it

#210

Post by briandear »

mdmglr wrote: post #152
quadrifoliate wrote: post #116

> I bought him a Chromebook for schoolwork, but also for other private things. When we logged in... This is why you need to pay attention to the technology choices that you make, and that your schools make. Chromebooks are designed from the ground up to be locked-down dystopian spyware once you "log in" to them with a specific Google account. For heaven's sake stop buying any more Chromebooks. The correct solution he…

> Call into the school's board meeting during public comment, and make it loud and clear that the school is installing spyware on students' Chromebooks. Share your technical credentials and the method by which you found this. Emphasize stories of previous data breaches involving educational companies [1], This is some bad advice. No need to escalate the situation. Simply contact the sons school and find out who the t…

> The school is not intentionally installing spyware

Citation needed.

Here is a counter citation: https://www.vice.com/amp/en/article/8xwze4/schools-are-using...

And here: https://amp.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/oct/11/us-stu...

Schools are doing this. They are intention into installing spyware and GoGuardian is one of the biggest offenders.

This should be brought up at the school board.

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