Highly Disturbing Monitoring by School of Kid's Account

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The corporate culture of MCPS is that they do whatever the hell they want to do. They do not care about child and parent privacy rights or they would limit this tool to only school use. Monitoring activities on our home computers is a civil rights violation and unethical. MCPS is a government institution and they definitely crossed the line on this one.

Who exactly might have access to this?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The corporate culture of MCPS is that they do whatever the hell they want to do. They do not care about child and parent privacy rights or they would limit this tool to only school use. Monitoring activities on our home computers is a civil rights violation and unethical. MCPS is a government institution and they definitely crossed the line on this one.

Who exactly might have access to this?

You mean the data that MCPS has been tracking/logging on home computers when students log in?

This morning, my 8yo signed into my computer to fill in his book log while I was in the showers. Then the bus came, and he rushed out the door without logging off. Yes, it's his fault but he's also 8. He managed to close all the windows. I went and used my laptop the entire day and as I was accessing my google calendar an hour ago, I just then realized that I have been logged into MCPS the entire day. I guess his teacher or whatever admin can see exactly what I was looking at since this morning and was able to see my screen shots. Sure, I can lecture my child and remind him to make sure he logs out next time. In the meanwhile, my personal information accessed from my home computer is potentially compromised. I understand that MCPS wants to monitor our children, but not all 7, 8 year old are all that reliable, and the potential problems this kind of monitoring of home computers can be a huge issue.

[Anonymous]

Why wouldn't they have an automatic log-off feature that activates after a certain period of inactivity? Virtually every banking site I use has that feature.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The corporate culture of MCPS is that they do whatever the hell they want to do. They do not care about child and parent privacy rights or they would limit this tool to only school use. Monitoring activities on our home computers is a civil rights violation and unethical. MCPS is a government institution and they definitely crossed the line on this one.

Who exactly might have access to this?

You mean the data that MCPS has been tracking/logging on home computers when students log in?

This morning, my 8yo signed into my computer to fill in his book log while I was in the showers. Then the bus came, and he rushed out the door without logging off. Yes, it's his fault but he's also 8. He managed to close all the windows. I went and used my laptop the entire day and as I was accessing my google calendar an hour ago, I just then realized that I have been logged into MCPS the entire day. I guess his teacher or whatever admin can see exactly what I was looking at since this morning and was able to see my screen shots. Sure, I can lecture my child and remind him to make sure he logs out next time. In the meanwhile, my personal information accessed from my home computer is potentially compromised. I understand that MCPS wants to monitor our children, but not all 7, 8 year old are all that reliable, and the potential problems this kind of monitoring of home computers can be a huge issue.

Lecture yourself, PP. Next time, check to make sure that he logged out. If he didn't, log him out.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The corporate culture of MCPS is that they do whatever the hell they want to do. They do not care about child and parent privacy rights or they would limit this tool to only school use. Monitoring activities on our home computers is a civil rights violation and unethical. MCPS is a government institution and they definitely crossed the line on this one.

Who exactly might have access to this?

You mean the data that MCPS has been tracking/logging on home computers when students log in?

This morning, my 8yo signed into my computer to fill in his book log while I was in the showers. Then the bus came, and he rushed out the door without logging off. Yes, it's his fault but he's also 8. He managed to close all the windows. I went and used my laptop the entire day and as I was accessing my google calendar an hour ago, I just then realized that I have been logged into MCPS the entire day. I guess his teacher or whatever admin can see exactly what I was looking at since this morning and was able to see my screen shots. Sure, I can lecture my child and remind him to make sure he logs out next time. In the meanwhile, my personal information accessed from my home computer is potentially compromised. I understand that MCPS wants to monitor our children, but not all 7, 8 year old are all that reliable, and the potential problems this kind of monitoring of home computers can be a huge issue.

Lecture yourself, PP. Next time, check to make sure that he logged out. If he didn't, log him out.

You must work for mcps.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Why wouldn't they have an automatic log-off feature that activates after a certain period of inactivity? Virtually every banking site I use has that feature.

At the least, they should consider activating this feature.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The corporate culture of MCPS is that they do whatever the hell they want to do. They do not care about child and parent privacy rights or they would limit this tool to only school use. Monitoring activities on our home computers is a civil rights violation and unethical. MCPS is a government institution and they definitely crossed the line on this one.

Who exactly might have access to this?

You mean the data that MCPS has been tracking/logging on home computers when students log in?

This morning, my 8yo signed into my computer to fill in his book log while I was in the showers. Then the bus came, and he rushed out the door without logging off. Yes, it's his fault but he's also 8. He managed to close all the windows. I went and used my laptop the entire day and as I was accessing my google calendar an hour ago, I just then realized that I have been logged into MCPS the entire day. I guess his teacher or whatever admin can see exactly what I was looking at since this morning and was able to see my screen shots. Sure, I can lecture my child and remind him to make sure he logs out next time. In the meanwhile, my personal information accessed from my home computer is potentially compromised. I understand that MCPS wants to monitor our children, but not all 7, 8 year old are all that reliable, and the potential problems this kind of monitoring of home computers can be a huge issue.

Lecture yourself, PP. Next time, check to make sure that he logged out. If he didn't, log him out.

You must work for mcps.

No, I'm a parent whose kids have occasionally forgotten to log out.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The corporate culture of MCPS is that they do whatever the hell they want to do. They do not care about child and parent privacy rights or they would limit this tool to only school use. Monitoring activities on our home computers is a civil rights violation and unethical. MCPS is a government institution and they definitely crossed the line on this one.

Who exactly might have access to this?

You mean the data that MCPS has been tracking/logging on home computers when students log in?

This morning, my 8yo signed into my computer to fill in his book log while I was in the showers. Then the bus came, and he rushed out the door without logging off. Yes, it's his fault but he's also 8. He managed to close all the windows. I went and used my laptop the entire day and as I was accessing my google calendar an hour ago, I just then realized that I have been logged into MCPS the entire day. I guess his teacher or whatever admin can see exactly what I was looking at since this morning and was able to see my screen shots. Sure, I can lecture my child and remind him to make sure he logs out next time. In the meanwhile, my personal information accessed from my home computer is potentially compromised. I understand that MCPS wants to monitor our children, but not all 7, 8 year old are all that reliable, and the potential problems this kind of monitoring of home computers can be a huge issue.

Lecture yourself, PP. Next time, check to make sure that he logged out. If he didn't, log him out.

You must work for mcps.

No, I'm a parent whose kids have occasionally forgotten to log out.

I would log my kid out if I knew he had logged in! I was in the shower. Next you are going to tell me that I should watch my kid every moment of the day to make sure he never breaks a rule. He's typically very responsible, but he obviously ran out because he thought he'd miss the bus. So now, you are going to tell me I have a stupid child, a stupid family, and whatever other insult and deserve the worst in the world. Mistakes happen, but MCPS needs to realize that this happens with children and adults but the repercussion could be a bigger deal.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

I would log my kid out if I knew he had logged in! I was in the shower. Next you are going to tell me that I should watch my kid every moment of the day to make sure he never breaks a rule. He's typically very responsible, but he obviously ran out because he thought he'd miss the bus. So now, you are going to tell me I have a stupid child, a stupid family, and whatever other insult and deserve the worst in the world. Mistakes happen, but MCPS needs to realize that this happens with children and adults but the repercussion could be a bigger deal.

No, I am going to tell you to check whether your child is logged in -- and if so, log your child out -- before you use your computer.

[Anonymous]

Does everyone check their browser to make sure it is themself everytime they diff the internet on their laptop? I don't think most of us do.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Does everyone check their browser to make sure it is themself everytime they diff the internet on their laptop? I don't think most of us do.

If your child uses Chrome on your laptop, just use a different browser for yourself. GoGaurdian only monitors open tabs in the Chrome Browser, not everything on your computer. It also only monitors if the teacher opens a season to monitor. Additionally, I'm pretty sure you see a message letting you know there is an open session being monitored. It's not something that is running in the background 24/7

[Anonymous]

Our rule: DCs can not do anything on the computer unless they log into their own user account. If they are not in front of the computer, they need to leave the screen with login window on (i.e.) nobody should be able to get into their user account unintentionally. Surprisingly it has worked well for us ...

The problem I have with MCPS is that they never (until earlier this year) explicitly informed us of the monitoring. I happened to be aware of potential problems, and so set up user accounts for DCs quite a while ago. I completely understand why some of you are p****d off.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Does everyone check their browser to make sure it is themself everytime they diff the internet on their laptop? I don't think most of us do.

If your child uses Chrome on your laptop, just use a different browser for yourself. GoGaurdian only monitors open tabs in the Chrome Browser, not everything on your computer. It also only monitors if the teacher opens a season to monitor. Additionally, I'm pretty sure you see a message letting you know there is an open session being monitored. It's not something that is running in the background 24/7

Really? I thought some other poster earlier posted that their DC could see the screen of another child working from home?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Does everyone check their browser to make sure it is themself everytime they diff the internet on their laptop? I don't think most of us do.

If your child uses Chrome on your laptop, just use a different browser for yourself. GoGaurdian only monitors open tabs in the Chrome Browser, not everything on your computer. It also only monitors if the teacher opens a season to monitor. Additionally, I'm pretty sure you see a message letting you know there is an open session being monitored. It's not something that is running in the background 24/7

Really? I thought some other poster earlier posted that their DC could see the screen of another child working from home?

Here's an earlier response from an MCPS teacher who uses GoGuardian in class:

I'm a teacher who uses GoGuardian. You can see a child's screen who is at home sick if the kid is logged into their school account on a chrome browser during their normal class time.

From the GoGuardian website, it also indicates that admin can view previous sessions, which indicates there is also logging of data.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Does everyone check their browser to make sure it is themself everytime they diff the internet on their laptop? I don't think most of us do.

If your child uses Chrome on your laptop, just use a different browser for yourself. GoGaurdian only monitors open tabs in the Chrome Browser, not everything on your computer. It also only monitors if the teacher opens a season to monitor. Additionally, I'm pretty sure you see a message letting you know there is an open session being monitored. It's not something that is running in the background 24/7

Really? I thought some other poster earlier posted that their DC could see the screen of another child working from home?

Here's an earlier response from an MCPS teacher who uses GoGuardian in class:

I'm a teacher who uses GoGuardian. You can see a child's screen who is at home sick if the kid is logged into their school account on a chrome browser during their normal class time.

From the GoGuardian website, it also indicates that admin can view previous sessions, which indicates there is also logging of data.

But it is only showing the Google Chrome screen, not every application. So, yes, they can see the child who is at home and their screen IF the Google Chrome Browser is open and the various tabs on that browser. GoGardian pairs with Google Chrome and the students' Chrome account.