Colleges are turning students’ phones into surveillance machines, tracking the locations of hundreds of thousands
Colleges are turning students’ phones into surveillance machines, tracking the locations of hundreds of thousands
Colleges are turning students’ phones into surveillance machines, tracking the locations of hundreds of thousands
By Drew Harwell
December 24, 2019
Summary
The dream of some administrators is a university where every student is a model student, adhering to disciplined patterns of behavior that are intimately quantified, surveilled and analyzed.
"These administrators have made a justification for surveilling a student population because it serves their interests, in terms of the scholarships that come out of their budget, the reputation of their programs, the statistics for the school," said Kyle M. L. Jones, an Indiana University assistant professor who researches student privacy.
Students "Should have all the rights, responsibilities and privileges that an adult has. So why do we treat them so differently?" Students disagree on whether the campus-tracking systems are a breach of privacy, and some argue they have nothing to hide.
SpotterEDU uses Bluetooth beacons roughly the size of a deck of cards to signal to a student's smartphone once a student steps within range.
The app records a full timeline of the students' presence so advisers can see whether they left early or stepped out for a break.
"Students today have so many distractions," said Tami Chievous, an associate athletic director at the University of Missouri, where advisers text some freshmen athletes if they don't show up within five minutes of class.
"We have to make sure they're doing the right thing." The Chicago-based company has experimented with ways to make the surveillance fun, gamifying students' schedules with colorful Bitmoji or digital multiday streaks.
The real value may be for school officials, who Carter said can split students into groups, such as "Students of color" or "Out-of-state students," for further review.
The tracking has not been without its pitfalls: Earlier versions of the app, he said, included a button allowing students to instantly share their exact GPS coordinates, leading some to inadvertently send him their location while out at night.
For even more data, schools can turn to the Austin, Texas-based start-up Degree Analytics, which uses WiFi check-ins to track the movements of roughly 200,000 students across 19 state universities, private colleges and other schools.
Launched by the data scientist Aaron Benz in 2017, the company says in promotional materials that every student can graduate with "a proper environment and perhaps a few nudges along the way." Benz tells school administrators that his system can solve "a real lack of understanding about the student experience": By analyzing campus WiFi data, he said, 98% of their students can be measured and analyzed.
The data isn't conclusive, Benz said, but it can "Shine a light on where people can investigate, so students don't slip through the cracks." To help find these students, he said, his team designed algorithms to look for patterns in a student's "Behavioral state" and automatically flag when their habits change.
At a Silicon Valley summit in April, Benz outlined a recent real-life case: that of Student ID 106033, a depressed and "Extremely isolated" student he called Sasha whom the system had flagged as "Highly at-risk" because she only left her dorm to eat.
The students who deviate from those day-to-day campus rhythms are flagged for anomalies, and the company then alerts school officials in case they want to pursue real-world intervention.
Chris Gilliard, a professor at Macomb Community College in Michigan who testified before Congress last month on privacy and digital rights, said he worries about the expanding reach of "Surveillance creep": If these systems work so well in college, administrators might argue, why not high school or anywhere else? The systems, he added, are isolating for students who don't own smartphones, coercive for students who do and unnecessary for professors, who can accomplish the task with the same pop quizzes and random checks they've used for decades.
"You're forcing students into a position," he said: "Be tracked or be left out." Some parents wish their children faced even closer supervision.
Wes Grandstaff, who said his son, Austin, transformed from a struggling student to college graduate with SpotterEDU's help, said the added surveillance was worth it: "When you're a college athlete, they basically own you, so it didn't matter what he felt: You're going to get watched and babysat whether you like it or not." He now says he wishes schools would share the data with parents, too.
Students quickly scattered the opt-out link across social media, and the independent student newspaper, the Commonwealth Times, sowed doubts about the program's secrecy and stated mission, writing, "Student success my ass." The university declined to make an official available for an interview.
One student who opted out, VCU senior Jacie Dannhardt, said she was furious that the college had launched first-year students into a tracking program none of them had ever heard of.
"We don't need hall passes anymore." The opt-out rate at VCU, Benz said, climbed to roughly half of all eligible students.
Reference
Harwell, D. (2019, December 24). Colleges are turning students' phones into surveillance machines, tracking the locations of hundreds of thousands. Retrieved December 31, 2019, from https://www.boston.com/news/education/2019/12/24/spotteredu?utm_source=share&utm_medium=ios_app&utm_name=iossmf.