Orange County Public Schools To Monitor Students On Social Media

The Orlando Sentinel reports that Orange County, Florida, is undertaking a sweeping effort to snoop on the social media communications of the county's public school students and staff, for the nebulous task of "[ensuring] safe school operations," and say they will use the software (at a license cost of about $13,000 per year) "to conduct routine monitoring for purposes of prevention or early intervention of potential issues where students or staff could be at risk to themselves or to others." The software they're using is from Snaptrends, which offers "location-based social media discovery." According to one of the comments attached to the linked story, there are monthly fees, in addition to the annual licensing cost.

Comments

Private Profiles

[D.McG.]

Anyone with a clue makes their profile private such that only friends may see their posts. Most children are told explicitly to do this by parents because of creepy stalkers. These clowns are actually receiving/spending tax payer's money to stalk. Illegal on so many levels.

Re:Private Profiles

[negRo_slim]

Anyone with a clue doesn't use a site whose sole purpose is to datamine your ass. When will people begin to understand that Facebook is the enemy?

Here, we have the nanny state stepping in, and Facebook cooperates fully. Facebook does nothing to block trackers, in fact, they ENCOURAGE trackers! I'm sure that Facebook is getting some kind of financial incentive for cooperating. If government doesn't offer incentives directly, then the companies like Snaptrends is passing it on.

Well some of us live in the real world and can't just hide under a rock because, ya know, we need to interact with people for personal and professional reasons via popular social media sites.

Re: Private Profiles

[Anonymous Coward]

People like you are the problem. FB profiles are hardly appropriate for professionals. Email and a proper website shows that you care about running a business. Plus I see a ton of companies using fb to encourage people to spam friends for rewards.

This isn't living under a rock, it's realizing that living in a glass house has no advantages for us.

Re:Private Profiles

[Dutch Gun]

Absolutely. Still, this will teach students a valuable life lesson. Prospective employers are probably going to pull the same sort of nonsense, so they had better start learning to watch what they say in public right now.

Also... I'm obviously building the wrong type of software. I'd love to be able to charge $13K plus monthly usage fees for scanning targeted people on Facebook, Twitter, and a few other services for scary keywords and phrases.

Re:Private Profiles

[Ol Olsoc]

Well some of us live in the real world and can't just hide under a rock because, ya know, we need to interact with people for personal and professional reasons via popular social media sites.

This might be the most bizzaro statement ever issued on Slashdot. Exactly and totally wrong.

Allow Ol to educate you. Facebook, is not the real world. Really, it isn't. Real world is meeting people face to face, doing things with them, kind of experiencing life. It's not old fashioned to avoid Facebook, it isn't being a luddite. Avoiding Facebook is the same as avoiding crystal meth.

This is you. https://www.youtube.com/watch?...

if you dont want people

[ganjadude]

if you dont want people to know what you are doing.... dont post it online for the world to see! is it really that hard???

My question is where is the money coming from to pay for this? i want my teachers teaching, not spying

Re:if you dont want people

[ColdWetDog]

No, you (presumably) want the teachers to be teaching. Not being their parents.

That ship sailed long ago. That said, GODDAMMIT; '1984' WAS SUPPOSED TO BE A WARNING. NOT AN OPERATIONS MANUAL.

The key assumption are

[Registered Coward v2]

1. They can accurately identify students and staff. Since no one has ever created a fake social media account that shouldn't be hard. Just require everyone to provide a list of all their accounts. No one would object to that, correct?

2. Software can accurately parse potential threat from random uses of keywords and not require excessive reviews of material that is innocuous.

3. No one would create fake accounts to cause #2 to occur.

4. No one will object nor have the cash to hire a lawyer if the school demands account information under threat of punishment.

Re:Sounds cheap if it works

[penix1]

Of course, this WILL rapidly degenerate into "Deidre got detention because she posted a selfie on Instagram with a really revealing outfit."

FTFY....

So the school officials need to have plenty of common sense.

No... The schools need to be treated like the government entities they are and get the shit sued out of them for violating the Constitution's 4th and 5th Amendment rights. Think of the children only goes so far. But given the shithead fossils we got for a Supreme Court, it wouldn't surprise me if they uphold this shit.

Re:Good

[Anonymous Coward]

In my experience as a teacher, "early intervention of potential issues" just means that kids are going to be suspended or expelled by some smug, power-tripping asshole in administration. Suspensions rarely -- if ever -- have a positive impact on a troubled child. Nobody is going to learn a lesson on the value of privacy; you're just going to end up with a bunch of resentful students who hate school even more.