Highly Disturbing Monitoring by School of Kid's Account

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

I don't think you are understanding how what mcps is doing is not a typical IT standard that is adopted by any organizations that I have worked for.

Have you worked for any school systems?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Is there any Privacy Attorney (is this even a thing) available in DMV who can give a crash course? Or a AMA here? I want a class action lawsuit.

+ 1,000,000

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Is there any Privacy Attorney (is this even a thing) available in DMV who can give a crash course? Or a AMA here? I want a class action lawsuit.

+ 1,000,000

so typical..

[Anonymous]

I agree this needs to be reexamined. Maybe not jump to class action, but this seems like a problem in the making.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This was disclosed to you when your kid got an account and you signed an acknowledgment. There is nothing wrong with it. But even if there were, you agreed to it and have waived any objections. Read stuff before you sign it.

Never signed anything like that.

Our child has been given multiple online accounts - MCPS and other ones for kids to play games (or they call learning). I was not ok with my child's information being given out and they said too bad. I only learned of them when my child showed me and gave me the information. They give our kids chrome books for use at school without our permission too. Its ironic as they send out literature saying parents should limit screen time and most kids spend hours on screens at school.

Kids should limit screen time at home because you are not monitoring them idiot

[Anonymous]

Just have your kid log out when he is done with his work!

I would much rather MCPS keep GoGuardian than get rid of it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This was disclosed to you when your kid got an account and you signed an acknowledgment. There is nothing wrong with it. But even if there were, you agreed to it and have waived any objections. Read stuff before you sign it.

Never signed anything like that.

Our child has been given multiple online accounts - MCPS and other ones for kids to play games (or they call learning). I was not ok with my child's information being given out and they said too bad. I only learned of them when my child showed me and gave me the information. They give our kids chrome books for use at school without our permission too. Its ironic as they send out literature saying parents should limit screen time and most kids spend hours on screens at school.

Kids should limit screen time at home because you are not monitoring them idiot

Dude -- you are one angry person who seems to be MCPS's hell bent protector. We get your point already. Now stop going back and telling everyone they are idiots for not signing their privacy rights away.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Just have your kid log out when he is done with his work!

I would much rather MCPS keep GoGuardian than get rid of it.

I am not agains MCPS keeping GoGuardian or similar applications, but they need to tweak it properly for at-home and in-school usage so that it also is not invasive to possible personal privacy breaches. Also, they need to make parents a lot more aware of exactly what information they are storing, and all parents need to officially sign-off to give permission. We complain all the time that MCPS is not transparent in what they do, and this is just exactly an example of it. This time, it goes beyond just classroom affairs but can have greater ramifications had personally information been tracked/stored somewhere.

[Anonymous]

Our principal was clear as day that any device remaining signed in to an MCPS account was reporting everything back to MCPS. Parent computer, kid phone, whatever.

[Anonymous]

This is definitely NOT NORMAL. They're pushing out chrome extensions onto your personal computer.

Don't let your kids use a personal Chromebook to log into school and don't let them use a Chrome browser on a personal computer. Force them to use IE or FireFox.

A family member logged into my Chrome browser using their Montgomery College account without asking me one time. The next time he used his personal Chromebook, all my favorites were added to his. I ended up removing Chrome from my PC.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am an IT professional, and let me just say that what MCPS is doing is not something that we do in the industry. For most of us, when we use an official work laptop/device, we should always assume we are monitored because when we started work, we signed an agreement on something that actually gave permission to our company to do so. Secondly, even when we logged in, normally we have to go through a VPN, and the computer will state somewhere that you are in VPN mode. For MCPS, your child can log in to their MCPS account on their parents' personal home computer, close all the windows after they are done, and still be logged in. Unless a child EXPLICITLY LOGS OUT, you will never know if you are still LOGGED IN to the system. Then next day, the parents opens up their computer and access websites such as banks to pay bills, maybe log into some portal to look at health information, maybe email personal information or have private text chats with coworkers/friends. What that means is to a parent, they think the are no longer in the MCPS system and all their activities including their entire screenshots are being tracked and saved by possibly not just the teacher but other administrator. I am sorry, but this is fundamentally very flawed.

I get the MCPS's teacher's perspective about how important it is to track our kids' activities at school. But unless MCPS makes this process of home computer intrusion a lot more clear, or heck, even logs the kid out of the MCPS account after idling for 30 minutes, this cannot possibly have legal legs to stand on.

I have never gotten anything from my school regarding chromebooks usage aside from my kids bringing home their account login/password. Even if the school emails the parents to inform them that kids should be logging out of their computer, I cannot imagine that this would not become a huge legal issue if some important personal information is leaked. This needs to be fixed.

By your kid logging out/you logging your kid out.

I don't think you are understanding how what mcps is doing is not a typical IT standard that is adopted by any organizations that I have worked for.

You work at crappy places with low it budgets ripe for liability issues

No kidding. I’m surprised by all the outrage. My work can see what I do at home if I am logged onto their system. The solution is to make sure you log out or never allow use of that system at home.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This is definitely NOT NORMAL. They're pushing out chrome extensions onto your personal computer.

Don't let your kids use a personal Chromebook to log into school and don't let them use a Chrome browser on a personal computer. Force them to use IE or FireFox.

A family member logged into my Chrome browser using their Montgomery College account without asking me one time. The next time he used his personal Chromebook, all my favorites were added to his. I ended up removing Chrome from my PC.

I this right? Is everything fine if our child uses Firefox at home. If so, awesome!

Seems like a bit of a design flaw for Google though, if this GoGuardian encourages all students and their families not to use Chrome, a Google product. Ah well.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The school is potentially liable for anything inappropriate students do with their MCPS accounts. Of course they have a way to monitor activity.

At school, definitely, but certainly not at home.

Yes, at home. If you are using their network remotely, they are still potentially liable.

+1
I don't see anything wrong with the monitoring and certainly don't believe it's "highly disturbing."

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If it is their website, they are allowed to monitor it. Make sure your child logs out and only uses it for school.

DP - that’s ridiculous to put this onus on elementary school kids. I’ve been concerned about monitoring as well, although I was not aware of this app. My kids have told me that the school can see whatever websites they or we use in chrome if they are still logged into their school account - even at home. How can this be legal?

BECAUSE IT IS THE SCHOOL'S ACCOUNT NUMB-NUTS!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Before you talk to a lawyer, you might want to talk to an IT person.

For any sort of screen capture/transfer to occur the software has to be installed on the chrome book. It doesn't happen natively through a google account. I could be wrong, but in the little bit of research I did it looks the Chromebook would need to be on the same network as the server doing the data aggregation. This would require the software to be installed on a personal chrome book and some sort of VPN tunnel to be established.

This software is CIPA compliant, but again, it has to be installed to be functional.

OP here. What you said makes sense and I had thought the same exact thing. That is why the fact DD saw her sick classmate's home screen surprised me. I normally don't like ruffling feathers with the school so was hoping someone could chime in on what they know about the GoGuardian system, but this is certainly something I will ask the teacher.

You know how you check the 'Agree to Terms and Conditions' box without every reading anything. This is why you want to do that.

LOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOL!!