The History of Surveillance in Schools

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Shooting in texas was not something that was entirely new. There's a long history of this going back to columbine and i'm sure even before in the united states. As we've had more cameras, more things that people are calling artificial intelligence, more machine learning, more systems that can be installed on young people's computers,. These have been pitched more and more as some kind of solution to this problem. After all, it doesn't equal more safety, but people often feel like it does.

Paris Marx is joined by Chris Gilliard to discuss the push to expand surveillance technologies in schools during the pandemic and in response to school shootings, and why they’re making life worse for students without addressing the problems they claim to solve.

Chris Gilliard is Just Tech Fellow at the Social Science Research Council at a recurring columnist at Wired. Follow Chris on Twitter at @hypervisible.

Tech Won’t Save Us offers a critical perspective on tech, its worldview, and wider society with the goal of inspiring people to demand better tech and a better world. Follow the podcast (@techwontsaveus) and host Paris Marx (@parismarx) on Twitter, and support the show on Patreon.

The podcast is produced by Eric Wickham and part of the Harbinger Media Network.

Also mentioned in this episode:

Chris recently wrote about why school surveillance won’t protect kids from shootings.
Chris and David Golumbia wrote about luxury surveillance for Real Life.
Pia Ceres wrote about how students’ school devices are still tracking what they do on them.
Amazon is launching a new show called “Ring Nation” to make Ring surveillance videos seem less invasive.
Studies by the Center for Democracy and Technology have found negative effects from surveillance on student expression and increasing their contact with police.
After nine members of Axon’s AI ethics board resigned, plans for a taser drone in schools seem to still be inching forward.
Todd Feathers reported on how school monitoring tools could flag searches for sexual and reproductive health resources.
Pasco County in Florida deployed a predictive policing system targeting children.
Some books mentioned: David Noble Progress Without People and Forces of Production, and Dan Greene wrote The Promise of Access: Technology, Inequality, and the Political Economy of Hope.