Between Safety and Surveillance: Third-Party Device Monitoring and Student Privacy

Contributor(s)

Daniel Flyer, Sam Hafferty, Nitya Nadgir

Abstract

With the rise of 1:1 device models in schools, third-party programs like Securly, Gaggle, Bark, among others have grown in use to monitor student activity online. These tools offer insight into student activity on school-issued devices, raising both praise for safety benefits and concerns over privacy, censorship, and equity. Our paper offers a technical analysis of the information flows of two products: Bark for Schools and LanSchool Air. On a Chromebook managed via Google Workspace, we simulate student behavior and track network activity using mitmproxy. We analyze how these tools collect, share, and present student data, and the interfaces for access and control offered to teachers. We compare these processes with company policies and federal legislation. Our aim is to support school leaders with tools to vet their third-party educational technology vendors, families to understand how these products work, and lawmakers to protect student rights in digital learning environments.