GoGuardian: Difference between revisions

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==Incidents==
==Incidents==
===Student data collection concerns (2023)===
===Student data collection concerns===
According to a study in 2023, school administrators using the GoGuardian admin tool have access to student "browsing histories, documents, videos, app and extension data, and content filtering and alerts."<ref name="EFF">{{Cite web |last=Kelley |first=Jason |date=30 Oct 2023 |title=How GoGuardian Invades Student Privacy |url=https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2023/10/how-goguardian-invades-student-privacy?language=en |url-status=live |access-date=15 Mar 2025 |website=[[EFF]]}}</ref> GoGuardian claims "they de-identify data before sharing it with third parties or other entities", though it is reported the data can be deanominized.<ref name="EFF" /> This is an issue as students in American school districts are under the age of 18, which if advertised to with targeted ads based on their GoGuardian data is a direct violation of the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA). Also, students who utilize this software as a service (SAAS) are forced into using school devices with the monitoring software preinstalled, such as Chromebooks.
The GoGuardian suite collects a variety of student information, including school account information (name, profile picture, and email address), browsing history, geographic device location, email content, screenshots (which are automatically taken on the user's device and displayed to administrators), and keystroke variance to identify user activity.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Product Privacy Policy |url=https://www.goguardian.com/policies/product-privacy |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250720182619/https://www.goguardian.com/policies/product-privacy |archive-date=2025-07-20 |website=GoGuardian |at=§1.4 GoGuardian Personal Student Information}}</ref> Such information may be anonymized and used for GoGuardian product marketing or development.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Product Privacy Policy |url=https://www.goguardian.com/policies/product-privacy |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250720182619/https://www.goguardian.com/policies/product-privacy |archive-date=2025-07-20 |website=GoGuardian |at=§4 How We Disclose Information Collected Through Our Offerings |quote="We may use, share, or disclose De-Identified information (as that term is defined in our EULA) for various purposes such as product development, research, and marketing, in compliance with relevant laws."}}</ref> Several concerns exist surrounding the granularity of the information, including the possibility of such data being deanonymized.{{Citation needed|reason=term should be defined on own page?}} Another issue arises due to an overwhelmingly large amount of school-issued devices having GoGuardian installed<ref>{{Cite web |title=GoGuardian {{!}} Engaging Digital Learning For Schools |url=https://goguardian.com |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250723161808/https://www.goguardian.com/ |archive-date=2025-07-23 |website=GoGuardian |quote="GoGuardian products are used by nearly 50% of public and private K-12 students in the United States."}}</ref> (and often forcibly enabled) by school administrators, which limits the user's ability to restrict data collection and disclosure.  
 
====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==
==References==
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[[Category:GoGuardian]]
[[Category:GoGuardian]]