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Content type: Examples
The UK government has proposed legislation to allow police to search the database of driver's licence photos with facial recognition software to identify criminal suspects. People applying for licences have not consented to being included in this "permanent police lineup", the victims of mistakes may have little opportunity to argue back, the systems are flawed, and the consequences for Britain's culture of policing-by-consent are unknown.https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2023/dec/20/…
Content type: Examples
The newly appointed DGP in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh has said he intends to focus on people-centric and artificial intelligence-based predictive policing to identify high-risk areas so that police can anticipate and prevent crimes. He has also named cybercrime as a priority. Uttar Pradesh, which holds about 17% of India's population, is ranked 20th in terms of crime rates, and has a conviction rate of 70.8, nearly three times the national average of 25.3.https://timesofindia.indiatimes.…
Content type: Examples
At recent rallies, London's Metropolitan police have ramped up use of facial recognition technology to scan pro-Israeli and pro-Palestinian protesters, claiming that some of the signs, banners, and chants heard at these protests stray into religious or racial offences. Following the protests held the second weekend in January 2024, the police launched about 30 investigations.https://www.biometricupdate.com/202401/london-police-deploy-facial-recognition-during-palestine-and-israel-…
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Leaked messages show that Shirion Collective, a pro-Israel surveillance network that claims its "Maccabee" AI tool can identify and track targets, is branching out from the UK to Australia. The group, like others such as Canary Mission, claims to fight antisemitism, mostly by identifying individuals online. The results place the named individuals at risk of attacks and intimidate activists and academics.https://www.theguardian.com/media/2024/jan/30/pro-israel-group-shirion-collective-australian…
Content type: Examples
Police in Queensland photographed peaceful pro-Palestinian protesters in Logan in December 2023 and recorded the licence plate numbers of cars displaying Palestinian flags. When politicians and others objected, police defended the practice by saying that some threats require "significant threat and risk assessments" and that recording people and vehicles using body-worn cameras, mobile devices, and other means is normal practice.https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2024/jan/19/queensland-…
Content type: Examples
The FBI is using databases of location data and facial recognition technology to automate finding and charging participants in the January 6 insurrection at the Capitol who have so far escaped identification and arrest. Few legal protections stand in the way of this type of digital surveillance. The first of the more than 1,200 insurrectionists charged to date were those whose social media postings or tips from third parties made them obvious suspects. More recently, the FBI has found new…
Content type: Examples
Over 60 US cities and counties use Fusus, a "police technology platform that merges public and private cameras with predictive policing and other surveillance tools". Private surveillance camera owners are encouraged to enroll in a police-led program that enables the police to control these cameras. The result is an expanstion of policed spaces and integration of all private and public surveillance systems in one comprehensive dragnet. And Fusus' platform does not stop at integrating CCTV…
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Notorious military tech company Anduril is pushing its technology to the border surveillance market. Along the US-Mexico border, its surveillance towers "use an artificial intelligence system called Lattice to autonomously identify, detect and track “objects of interest”, such as humans or vehicles. The cameras pan 360 degrees and can detect a human from 2.8km away." But border surveillance technology has been shown to lead people to lengthier and more dangerous routes as they seek to avoid…
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Some UK schools have bought and installed sensors in toilets that 'actively listen' to pupils' conversations to try to detect keywords spoken by pupils. The sensors are being sold to detect vaping, bullying, and other problems. However, privacy campaigners say these sensors are potentially a safeguarding issue, a violation of children's rights, and are likely to be unlawful. The sensors do not record or save any conversations, but send alerts to staff when triggered. Not all the schools…
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A coalition of 33 civil rights, disabilities, privacy, and education advocacy groups are pushing the state of Florida to stop developing the Florida Schools Safety Portal, a database of detailed information about students for the claimed purpose of preventing school shootings, calling it a "massive surveillance effort". Governor Ron DeSantis has backed the database, which has been delayed since early 2019, when it was intended to become operational. The groups complain that the planned database…
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A 12-year-old boy and his parent worked out how to game the grading algorithm used by the testing software Edgenuity by including a list of keywords alongisde two full sentences in responses to short-answer questions. Students at others of the more than 20,000 schools that use Edgenuity use this and other strategies to get perfect grades. Students game grading algorithm for perfect scoresPublication: The VergeWriter: Monica Chin
Content type: Examples
Fairplay and the Center for Digital Democracy are asking the US Federal Trade Commission to investigate whether Google and YouTube are violating the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act and the terms of a 2019 settlement agreement by serving children personalised ads on videos labelled "made for kids". The two organisations, along with EPIC and Common Sense Media, believe the FTC should seek penalties topping tens of billions of dollars. In the 2019 settlement Google and YouTube were…
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An increasingly broad range of US government agencies - including the Fish and Wildlife Service, the Social Security Administration, and the departments of Agriculture, Education, and Housing and Urban Development - are able to break into encrypted phones and copy their data using technology provided by Cellebrite. At its IPO in August 2022, Cellebrite claimed 2,800 government customers in North America as well as six of the world’s ten largest pharmaceutical companies and six of the ten…
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US Immigration and Customs Enforcement is using an obscure administrative subpoena called “1509”, intended for use only in criminal investigation about illegal imports or unpaid customs duty. Most requests have sought records from telecommunications companies, technology firms, money transfer services, airlines, and others, but in outlier cases ICE has used 1509s to obtain records from a Texas youth soccer league, a Georgia elementary school, boards of elections, two news organisations and a…
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Wisconsin schools use a racially discriminatory Dropout Early Warning System built by the state to identify incoming 9th graders who may be at risk of failing to graduate on time in order to offer them help. The system’s machine learning algorithms make their assessments based on test scores, disciplinary records, lunch price status, and race. In a study of millions of predictions over a decade, The Markup finds that the system may be wrongly and negatively influencing teachers’ impressions of…
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A new report finds that monitoring software is in wide use in US K-12 schools, and that teachers, parents, and students generally believe the benefits outweigh the risks while still expressing some privacy and equity concerns. The authors recommend transparency, data minimisation, and mitigation of inequitable results stemming from this monitoring. The authors also recommend that schools should retain control of the data and build capacity within the school system and surrounding communities as…
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An investigation finds that using search tools provided by the College Board, the organisation that administers SATs and Advanced Placement exams for university-bound students, prompts it to send details of SAT scores, grade point averages, and other data to Facebook, TikTik, and other companies via pixels embedded in its site. The tools help students find colleges that accept students with specific grades or test scores. College Board says the pixels are merely there to measure the…
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The spread of edtech has not, as hoped, levelled the playing field but widened the gap in skills between children of affluence and children of poverty, a new study finds. Removing problems of access - for example, by placing computers in public libraries - doesn't solve this because given access rich kids and poor kids use technology differently, often because children of affluence have more guidance who help solve frustrating problems and steer children towards educational resources. The net…
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A student in Minneapolis was outed when their parents were contacted by school administrators when surveillance software found LGBTQ keywords in their writing on a school-supplied laptop. The risk of many more such cases is increasing as the use of edtech spread, fuelled by the pandemic, and legislation, lawsuits, and pressure campaigns push schools to implement anti-LGBTQ policies. Software such as Gaggle, which surveils school computers and student accounts, constantly monitors students…
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Experiments with personalised technology-mediated learning have been successful in the controlled environment of charter schools, but now must prove their worth in traditional district schools with much larger class sizes, more rigid schedules, long-established teaching and learning cultures, and the pressures imposed by standardised tests. In a pilot, the California-based charter school network Summit Public Schools is offering its tools, training, and support for free to help other schools…
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The Innovation Academy in Sunrise, Arizona, is experimenting with offering 90 sixth through eighth-graders self-paced computerised lessons that generate data four teachers can use to monitor their progress, spot students who need help, and develop small-group activities. Key to the programme is "little data" that helps students understand their strengths and weaknesses and develop personalised learning plans. The Dysart district, where Sunrise is located, hoipes to expand the programme to all…
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Many US schools give students tablets, but the key to their successful use is providing data plans. The US's "homework gap" is the lack of at-home Internet access that keeps many children from being able to use the benefit from the many investments in edtech that are being made. In a new intiative, Qualcomm is working with other leaders in wireless technology to create the equivalent of a reduced-lunch plan for data.Article: Data plans key to schools' success with tablets Publication:…
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Chromebooks, which many schools purchased at the beginning of the pandemic because of their lower cost compared to PCs and Macs, are proving expensive as their prices rise, the cost of repairs bites, and Google's expiration policy means many models are about to become e-waste. A study from US PIRG finds that doubling the Chromebooks' lifespan could save public schools $1.8 billion. Older Macs and PCs, by contrast, can go on being used and have resale value. Article: Chromebooks expire to…
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Google is working to extend the lifespan of Chromebooks by providing software updates for up to a decade. The new policy, which will begin in 2024, will ensure that no current Chromebook expires in the next two years. The expiration dates were proving expensive for schools, which were having to spend millions of dollars on replacements because unsupported Chromebooks can't be used for mandatory state testing. Article: Google extends life of ChromebooksPublication: Wall Street JournalWriter…
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Months after a District Court judgment that Cleveland State University violated student privacy in requiring the use of an online proctoring service that required a scan of students' rooms, some professors California colleges were still using such software for remote exams. Privacy rights campaigners argue that the software is invasive and discriminatory and a violation of the Fourth Amendment; e-proctoring companies reply that the data they collect is limited.Article: California colleges use…
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New research shows that schools' scramble to adopt new technologies in schools have given for-profit companies a massive opening into the data of young people's everyday lives and created an $85 billion industry that has brought security and privacy risks for all concerned. Schools, meanwhile, lack the resources and knowledge to manage security vulnerabilities. Article: Edtech gives technology companies portal into students' lives Publication: LA School ReportWriter: Mark Keierleber…
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The New York State Department of Education has prohibited schools in New York State from purshasing or using facial recognition technology. Schools can use other types of biometric identifying technology as long as they consider the privacy implications. Article: New York State bans facial recognition in schoolsPublication: New York State Education DepartmentWriter: NYSED
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Human Rights Watch called on the national government of Brazil to amend the country's data protection law to add new safeguards to protect children online following the discovery that seven educational webistes directed at Brazilian students, including two created by state education secretariats, used tracking developed for advertising purposes to surveil children, harvested their personal data, and sent it to third-party companies. The websites watched children in their online classrooms and…
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Following a report from Human Rights Watch, The Public Ministry of São Paolo began an investigation to find out whether government education platforms and services collected students' personal data and sent it to adtech companies in violation of the General Data Protection Law. Article: São Paolo ministry investigates education websites for dataveillance Publication: G1Writer: Arthur Stabile