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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

#311

Post by bluSCALE4 »

mike_d wrote: post #278
bluSCALE4 wrote: post #271

My son came home with a Chromebook and I'm trying my hardest to make him hate it by talking as much shit about it every chance I get. I made sure to get him a desktop with games, dual boot windows and ubuntu and stress that if there's anything he wants to do, we can do it.

Since he is basically going to have a Chromebook for the rest of his school career, and likely part of his professional life, why not help him to understand it and set him up to be successful? Even if you have a personal dislike for something, your job is to enable your son to be prepared for his life ahead.

I see what you're getting at but there's really nothing Chrome OS offers that can't be replicated on x86 and M1 machines. If he really wants to use it, I'll just VM Chrome OS, get him a touch screen monitor and call it a day. Chrome OS and iOS for that matter are garbage through and through by design, not by nature and I'll never stop preaching that... basically, if I took your stance, I'd be putting my son at a huge disadvantage the more I think about it.

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

#312

Post by d1sxeyes »

Don't use the CPS provided account. CPS policy is quite clear:

https://policy.cps.edu/download.aspx?ID=203

> I. Applicability.

> This policy applies to all students who use CPS Computer Resources and/or access the CPS Network (“Students”). Personal electronic devices (e.g. personal laptop) are subject to this policy when such devices are connected to the CPS Network or Computer Resources.

> IV. Privacy and Monitoring.

> A. Privacy. Students have no expectation of privacy in their use of the CPS Network and Computer Resources

> B. Monitoring. The Department of Information & Technology Services (ITS) has the right to access, search, read, inspect, copy, monitor, log or otherwise use data and information stored, transmitted and processed on the CPS Network and Computer Resources in order to execute the requirements of this policy [...] ITS reserves the right to: (1) access and make changes to any system connected to the CPS Network and Computer Resources to address security concerns.

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

#313

Post by kkfx »

Being not from US I can't answer the legal part (here in France it's illegal and you just need to file a formal complaint) however: why you choose a Chromebook? People needs desktops, not modern dumb terminals/endpoints acting as WebVM bootloaders, so learn them from the start help kids a lot in both practical skill and pedagogical ones (they learn different things exists, strong and weak point of anything and they have comparisons terms), I mean Classroom works on GNU/Linux desktop I suppose, so why not just give you son a GNU/Linux desktop well configured and dedicate a bit of time aside to teach him basic and less basic usage?

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

#314

Post by sokoloff »

alexb_ wrote: post #296
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…

The biggest thing is that if you are calling to complain, then you will IMMEDIATELY be discredited. They don't have any reason to keep you happy, so complaints mean absolutely nothing. You cannot come with complaints - you must come with a solution, already prepared, such that it is easier for them to implement the solution than to not. People will always, 100% of the time, take the path of least resistance - actuall…

It seems like the path of least resistance here is “only use school equipment to access school accounts”, create the kid a non-school Google account, and only use non-school accounts (his and others) on the private Chromebook.

I find it annoying but acceptable that my work account doesn’t function on my non-work computer.

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

#315

Post by kkfx »

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…

Not the OP but: IME, in EU, being tough, not vocal, and being threatening legal actions with serious bases works very well, most institutions know they have skeletons in their wardrobe and they do not like to face someone who is not crying but very decided to hit with all legal means, especially if there are also ideological motivations.

Spyware is a very well generally understood terms: someone breach someone else privacy deliberately, witch means complaint, court and uncertain results for those who decide to spy. Surveillance capitalism is ignored by most, but known as evil so once someone talk about that pointing out the finger to a school, not a hyper-giant player, people arise likely. They imaging in their mind a naked child spied via the webcam etc in an instant. While they do normally not understand nothing about ownership and consent on "digital stuff".

Oh, BTW what "realistically happen" have exactly zero meaning: the possibility of doing so on not managed computers means a built-in RCE so big that such products must not be on the market. Remote control of desktops must be deployed on purpose not came pre-installed from factories because anyone can use a pre-installed system in place. If that's true at least in EU, there is room for legal action against the OEM, not only the school.

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

#316

Post by simonh »

boomlinde wrote: post #305
PragmaticPulp wrote: post #192

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Following this advice and using a tone that even resembles the tone of the comment or the original post will make you look/sound crazy. Thank you. Also, please ignore every comment in this thread suggesting you lawyer up or go to small claims court. The laptop isn't ruined and can be reset whenever the OP wants (as they already established). If you go in guns blazing to the school board, the school is going to go i…

> The laptop isn't ruined and can be reset whenever the OP wants (as they already established). I take it that it's fine that I install a microphone with a transmitter in your ceiling fixture so long as I do 't damage the fixture itself. > Don't immediately rush to assumptions of malicious intent Is there a good reason to doubt that the intended purpose for installing the software was to use its advertised functional…

If they thought the laptop was school property, then comparisons to wilful intrusion into someone’s house is hyperbolic, and no it wasn’t malicious. It would be more like if the cops had a valid warrant to track a suspects car, but installed the tracker in the wrong car by mistake.

Best to establish the facts first.

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

#318

Post by shapefrog »

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.

I remember not so long ago when people were using this advice on health care issues;

Call into the school's board meeting during public comment, and make it loud and clear that the school is injecting your children with 5G mind control vaccines. Share your technical credentials and the method by which you found this.

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

#319

Post by jrockway »

eru wrote: post #224
jrockway wrote: post #191

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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?

I watch the comments sections, even if they're silly, to see if anyone has anything interesting to say. Someone might, someday.

I watch the board meetings in general because the subject matter is interesting and there are neat details in there that don't get widely reported. Recently they had some slides with security camera footage of someone riding their bicycle on the subway tracks. No idea people did that. Also, the point of the board meetings public is to provide the public with some oversight. If you don't actually watch them, then there is no oversight. (I guess we hope that "someone else" does this for us. Transit reporting is not what the best journalists necessarily end up doing.)

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

#320

Post by shapefrog »

duxup wrote: post #45

> I did a full factory reset, signed in to his account again, and now the system is once again locked down. That’s by design though isn’t it? You logged in with a managed account and the policy was applied again? The account is his school account right? That’s pretty much how Chrome OS works. This might just be a good lesson that you want to maintain device / role boundaries.

> This might just be a good lesson that you want to maintain device / role boundaries.

This is the teachable moment here. Better for the poster and their child to learn it now rather than in the workplace.

It doesnt make it right, but the 90's and 00's with work browsing and email full of porn, dickpics and assorted filth were not right either.

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