School Surveillance

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The centre for democracy and technology just id a really interesting study about school surveillance systems. 50% of the students whom they talked to said that they did not feel free to express themselves freely and openly when they knew that they were being watched. This number increased when we're talking about queer entranced students, or people who are in some ways exploring there their gender or sexual identity. There's no evidence that these things actually make schools safer. The independent studies that i have seen suggest that they do not. In fact, it makes certain segments of the population, if schools, less safe, empirically. By adding this constant surveillance, you're making people feel less safe, not more safe

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.