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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

#221

Post by eru »

soraminazuki wrote: post #218
op00to wrote: post #202

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

From Wikipedia [1]: > GoGuardian products allow teachers and administrators to view and snapshot students' computer screens, close and open browser tabs, and see running applications. GoGuardian can collect information about any activity when users are logged onto their accounts, including data originating from a student's webcam, microphone, keyboard, and screen, along with historical data such as browsing history.…

Having a 'right to be angry' doesn't mean being angry is the tactic to further one's goals.

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

#222

Post by eru »

fiddlerwoaroof wrote: post #197
evilDagmar wrote: post #173

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Chromebooks are designed from the ground up to be locked-down dystopian spyware once you "log in" to them with a specific Google account. Nonsense. They were designed to implement required policies when someone logs into a managed domain. Unless you're logging into something like that (where disclosures have been made and consent has been obtained) then there's no "dystopian spyware" involved. Absent any domain man…

One solution could be to setup the laptop with a personal email account and configure the school email address to forward everything.

Not really applicable with the Chromebook, but in general I guess the safest thing is to log in to the school stuff only from a VM? (At least that way the damage is limited.)

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

#223

Post by eru »

car_analogy wrote: post #207
op00to wrote: post #202

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

What is accurate or not in some platonic sense doesn't have much bearing on what tactic will yield the results you want in practice.

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

#224

Post by eru »

jrockway wrote: post #191
spamizbad wrote: post #183

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can indeed attend and raise concerns but it will likely be ignored. Nobody is worried about losing their seat if they ignore constituent complaints.

Yeah, I don't really know how the Chicago school board meetings go, but I watch the MTA board meetings. (The MTA is New York State's public transportation agency.) They have a public comment section where you get 2 minutes to say whatever you want. These rants are usually completely incoherent and I doubt any board member could remember a specific point from any one of the commenters. I watch them all and I certainly…

Out of curiosity, why do you watch them all? Especially if you can't remember anything?

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

#226

Post by throwawayboise »

quadrifoliate wrote: post #129
spamizbad wrote: post #124

Earlier quoted context omitted.

CPS does not really have a traditional school board and it’s not elected either (appointed by one of several mayors who ran on an elected school board and then reneged). OP can shout their complaints out over Lake Michigan for the same effect.

A few minutes of Googling showed me this upcoming meeting https://www.cpsboe.org/meetings/details/2329 on April 27th, 2022. It seems to be a Chicago Board of Education meeting, and seems to have options for public participation. Do I have this wrong? I'm not from Chicago or Illinois, so that's quite possible.

It's Chicago. Unless you have $$$$$ to buy access, nothing will happen.

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

#227

Post by indymike »

I fought this with a suburban school system in Indiana and won. The spyware was installed on Chromebooks I bought. Before contacting the school, I monitored network traffic for about 1 HR and found a an ad fraud click bot and logging being sent to India.

When I contacted the school my ask was they remove the spyware from my Chromebooks. The first answer was, no. I asked again via the superintendent, and got a call from their IT director. I shared with him what my traffic monitoring found and a few days later I get another no.

My last try was simple... I paid a lawyer to write a simple letter demanding to have the software removed or be shown the warrant giving the school the right to install surveillance software on my laptop. The next day I get a call from the districts lawyer who wanted me to confirm the software had been removed, and it had been.

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

#228

Post by jmt_ »

MereInterest wrote: post #168
londons_explore wrote: post #149

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Group policies on Windows, applied at logon, give the admin control over what the user can or cannot do. If the admin wants you to use Chrome not Edge, then that is what you'll be using, and you won't be able to change the default.

To my knowledge, that group policy only applies to the user who is logging in, not the other users on the computer.

Depends. In the Active Directory world, policies can be applied at the user or computer level. Not sure about Chrome OS, but computer level policies absolutely can effect other users. I bet if OP signed into a normal, non-Google Classroom/organization affiliated account after they reset the device, they wouldn't have found GoGuardian running. This seems like if you connected an arbitrary device to a Windows domain over say VPN, then got surprised when user level policies were applied to the profile created on the local machine resultant from the process of connecting a machine to a domain. This is very much by design of ChromeOS as other commenters point out.

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

#230

Post by Epiphany21 »

>Does anyone know how to refer these people to law enforcement for prosecution?

Or, you know, you could just call the school during active hours and ask them politely to unlock it. They'll probably be more willing to accommodate you if you act older than your shoe size.

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