GoGuardian: Difference between revisions

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GoGuardian Inc. is a software company that focuses on education. They offer a browser extension for Google Chrome that has been known to spy on people, give teachers/admins full control to your computer, and prevent suicide. ~~(GoGuardian Beacon).~~ GoGuardian has caused a lot of controversy, ~~since~~ it ~~blocks websites~~.

{{InfoboxCompany

| Name = GoGuardian

| Type = Private

| Founded = 2015

| Industry = Education

| Official Website = https://www.goguardian.com/

| Logo = GoGuardian.png

}}

[[Wikipedia:GoGuardian|GoGuardian Inc.]] is a software company that focuses on education. They offer a browser extension for Google Chrome called "GoGuardian Beacon" that has been known to spy on people, give teachers/admins full control to your computer, and prevent suicide.{{CitationNeeded}} GoGuardian has caused a lot of controversy, as it accesses sensitive information.

==Controversies==

GoGuardian, ~~when the~~ extension is ~~only running on Google Chrome without~~ a ~~teacher~~ monitoring, ~~blocks a lot of websites, including privacy-focused search engines like DuckDuckGo and Brave Search~~.

===Student data collection concerns===

According to a study, GoGuardian admins have access to "browsing histories, documents, videos, app and extension data, and content filtering and alerts."<ref>https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2023/10/how-goguardian-invades-student-privacy?language=en</ref> This is an issue as students in school districts who utilize this software as a service (SAAS) are forced into using school devices with the monitoring software preinstalled, such as Chromebooks.

~~Due to~~ the ~~fact almost everyone born after the early 2000s has dealt with this software, (including me) it~~ is ~~considered forced spyware with little to no workarounds~~, ~~especially if the school requires students to use school~~-~~issued chromebooks~~.

GoGuardian knows what they are doing because on their [https://www.youtube.com/@GoGuardian YouTube channel], they disabled comments on their videos. On some videos, they disabled like and dislike count but on others, the dislike percent is very high, usually 90-95%. (Data obtained from Return Youtube Dislike Extension)

===Workarounds===

(personal experience) Teachers have been known to abuse this software, like one of mine from last year who was running it for me all day (when they are only supposed to run it only for the duration of the class, not for the whole day) and set a 3 tab limit, blocked YouTube, and did other bad things.

GoGuardian knows what they are doing because on their youtube channel, they disabled comments on their videos. On some videos, they disabled like and dislike count but on others, the dislike percent is very high, usually 90-95%. (Data obtained from Return Youtube Dislike Extension)

==Workarounds==

There are a few workarounds, like going to task manager (Shift+Esc) and ending the GoGuardian process. Some schools have disabled ending processes as a result.

Another workaround is using your own laptop with a browser other than Google Chrome.

==References==

==~~Sources~~==

~~https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2023/10/how-goguardian-invades-student-privacy?language=en~~

~~https://www.goguardian.com/~~

~~https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GoGuardian~~

~~https://www.youtube.com~~/~~@GoGuardian~~

@@ Line 1: / Line 1: @@
-GoGuardian Inc. is a software company that focuses on education. They offer a browser extension for Google Chrome that has been known to spy on people, give teachers/admins full control to your computer, and prevent suicide. (GoGuardian Beacon). GoGuardian has caused a lot of controversy, since it blocks websites.
+{{InfoboxCompany
+| Name = GoGuardian
+| Type = Private
+| Founded = 2015
+| Industry = Education
+| Official Website = https://www.goguardian.com/
+| Logo = GoGuardian.png
+}}
+[[Wikipedia:GoGuardian|GoGuardian Inc.]] is a software company that focuses on education. They offer a browser extension for Google Chrome called "GoGuardian Beacon" that has been known to spy on people, give teachers/admins full control to your computer, and prevent suicide.{{CitationNeeded}} GoGuardian has caused a lot of controversy, as it accesses sensitive information.
 ==Controversies==
-GoGuardian, when the extension is only running on Google Chrome without a teacher monitoring, blocks a lot of websites, including privacy-focused search engines like DuckDuckGo and Brave Search.
+===Student data collection concerns===
+According to a study, GoGuardian admins have access to "browsing histories, documents, videos, app and extension data, and content filtering and alerts."<ref>https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2023/10/how-goguardian-invades-student-privacy?language=en</ref> This is an issue as students in school districts who utilize this software as a service (SAAS) are forced into using school devices with the monitoring software preinstalled, such as Chromebooks.
-Due to the fact almost everyone born after the early 2000s has dealt with this software, (including me) it is considered forced spyware with little to no workarounds, especially if the school requires students to use school-issued chromebooks.
+GoGuardian knows what they are doing because on their [https://www.youtube.com/@GoGuardian YouTube channel], they disabled comments on their videos. On some videos, they disabled like and dislike count but on others, the dislike percent is very high, usually 90-95%. (Data obtained from Return Youtube Dislike Extension)
+===Workarounds===
-(personal experience) Teachers have been known to abuse this software, like one of mine from last year who was running it for me all day (when they are only supposed to run it only for the duration of the class, not for the whole day) and set a 3 tab limit, blocked YouTube, and did other bad things.
-GoGuardian knows what they are doing because on their youtube channel, they disabled comments on their videos. On some videos, they disabled like and dislike count but on others, the dislike percent is very high, usually 90-95%. (Data obtained from Return Youtube Dislike Extension)
-==Workarounds==
 There are a few workarounds, like going to task manager (Shift+Esc) and ending the GoGuardian process. Some schools have disabled ending processes as a result.
 Another workaround is using your own laptop with a browser other than Google Chrome.
+==References==
-==Sources==
+<references />
-https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2023/10/how-goguardian-invades-student-privacy?language=en
-https://www.goguardian.com/
-https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GoGuardian
-https://www.youtube.com/@GoGuardian