Local parents and other friends! Did you know that Durham Public Schools is using spyware to monitor our childrens' activities? This is really bad news and hasn't had much public discussion.

Below is a (modified) letter that a friend of mine sent to the School Board in case you would like to learn more and speak out yourself. You can contact the Board of Education directly by emailing BOE@dpsnc.net.

Hi Durham Public Schools board,

I have a middle school student in Durham Public Schools and am concerned about Gaggle. While I appreciate the effort to increase safety at school, I don’t think that Gaggle is an appropriate solution.

1) Gaggle uses poorly paid, poorly trained monitors to review flagged content. I don't want someone outside of DPS reading my child's email, Google Docs, or looking at images on their Google Drive. I’m concerned about reports that Gaggle’s school monitors have terrible working conditions (source: https://www.fastcompany.com/90748240/gaggle-school-content-moderation-privacy).

2) There’s evidence that Gaggle surveillance is both invasive and ineffective. One student reported that kids were recently pulled out of class because they had mentioned death in a creative writing assignment. This seems like a poor use of already strapped administrator time. Her experience is in line with reports from Minneapolis Public Schools (source: https://www.the74million.org/article/gaggle-surveillance-minnesapolis-families-not-smart-ai-monitoring/).

3) I’m concerned about the long-term effects of having kids in a surveillance system. I don’t like the idea that kids should expect to be watched at all times and have no expectation of privacy. We don’t know the long-term implications yet of these systems on kids’ mental health (source: https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/carolinehaskins1/gaggle-school-surveillance-technology-education).

Thank you for your time and all that you do for Durham students.

#spyware #gaggle #DurhamPublicSchools #privacy #surveillance #DurhamNC