GoGuardian
| Basic information | |
|---|---|
| Founded | 2015 |
| Type | Private |
| Industry | Education |
| Official website | https://www.goguardian.com/ |
GoGuardian Inc. is a software company that focuses on education. They offer a few browser extensions for Google Chrome called "GoGuardian" that has been known to spy on people, give teachers/admins full control to your computer, and block websites. Another one is called "GoGuardian Beacon" which does the things previously mentioned as well as prevent suicide.[citation needed] GoGuardian has caused a lot of controversy, as it accesses sensitive information.
Controversies
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."[1] GoGuardian claims "they de-identify data before sharing it with third parties or other entities", though it is reported the data can be deanominized.[1] 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.
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.