Know your data 34: the surveillance industry

It feels cathartic to worry about the plight of foreign citizens subject to surveillance by modern-day technologies. Don't forget about what's happening at home. Motherboard describes a monitoring tool that schools are increasingly using to track students who request to leave classrooms (link).

As the author noted, this tool is similar in spirit to the tool that Amazon uses to measure how long their workers spend in toilets.

Students who want to leave the classroom submit a request through this app; teachers then approve the request. Because it's done through the app, the students are tracked - how long have they been away, where did they go, etc.

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As with all such technologies, we should look at the bigger picture.

• What such technologies are capable of today, and in the near future
• Other than the advertised "benefits" of such technologies, what obvious harmful uses are enabled
• Other than those disclosed publicly, who else have access to the data, and why
• The right to be forgotten

Also, whether the technologies actually solve the problem. In the article, the vendor claims that the app can be used to stop gatherings of students at certain locations. How so? With or without this app, the teacher likely must show up at those locations to break up the gatherings. If without the app, the teacher cannot stop these gatherings; how does the app change that reality? Data provide information - humans still must make decisions and take actions.