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There are good questions below about lifetime of the video, etc. and while I can just state that everything is fine, the real answer is that schools in the US a

There are good questions below about lifetime of the video, etc. and while I can just state that everything is fine, the real answer is that schools in the US are not the closed organizations that are implied by a lot of the response here. School administration is 3 people, the district has a couple dozen. Budgets are public information, board meetings are open to all, and getting an agenda item to address concerns is not that difficult. This is the benefit to our education system not being centrally directed by some Federal organization who would be all too happy to have the 'FAANG Classroom Panopticon' installed so they can say they're 'doing something' about whatever the issue dujour is.

giaour 7y ago
I don't think this addresses the concerns being replied to. Teaching is incredibly difficult and time consuming, and just like teachers do not have the time or expertise to also be full time social workers for their students, they also do not have the time or expertise to ensure that surveillance data about their students is appropriately secured and purged. The same applies to local school administration officials, who as you point out are few in number and already stretched too thin across their existing responsibilities. I don't think anybody's saying that a particular teacher or administrator is to blame, but the original anecdote you shared is a bit chilling if you grew up expecting your childhood misdeeds to be forgotten over time. I remember that the most frightening thing the principal could say to you was "This is going in your permanent record"; the expectation otherwise was that it wasn't.
- panzagl 7y ago
  There are laws in place to address public release of info about minors. A lot of schools require a parent's signature before they'll post a public picture of a student, even if just captured incidentally. My wife's school is pretty paranoid about this stuff, mostly because of things like custody issues, restraining orders, etc. So a legal framework is in place, one with a little more teeth behind it than your typical EULA.
  - giaour 7y ago
    I understand that; I have also worked as a teacher. The problem is not that I expect schools to start willingly disclosing data about minors to whoever asks, but instead that there is so much data in the first place. A school with cameras everywhere -- even one that perfectly safeguards recorded video in perpetuity -- is teaching children that everything they do is on the record, ready to be marshalled as evidence against them at any point in the future. (To borrow a term from idlewords[1], such an environment conditions its occupants to a total lack of "ambient privacy.") Maybe that's the world we live in today, but it sucks. [1]: https://idlewords.com/2019/06/the_new_wilderness.htm https://idlewords.com/2019/06/the_new_wilderness.htm

giaour 7y ago

I don't think this addresses the concerns being replied to. Teaching is incredibly difficult and time consuming, and just like teachers do not have the time or expertise to also be full time social workers for their students, they also do not have the time or expertise to ensure that surveillance data about their students is appropriately secured and purged. The same applies to local school administration officials, who as you point out are few in number and already stretched too thin across their existing responsibilities. I don't think anybody's saying that a particular teacher or administrator is to blame, but the original anecdote you shared is a bit chilling if you grew up expecting your childhood misdeeds to be forgotten over time. I remember that the most frightening thing the principal could say to you was "This is going in your permanent record"; the expectation otherwise was that it wasn't.

panzagl 7y ago
There are laws in place to address public release of info about minors. A lot of schools require a parent's signature before they'll post a public picture of a student, even if just captured incidentally. My wife's school is pretty paranoid about this stuff, mostly because of things like custody issues, restraining orders, etc. So a legal framework is in place, one with a little more teeth behind it than your typical EULA.
- giaour 7y ago
  I understand that; I have also worked as a teacher. The problem is not that I expect schools to start willingly disclosing data about minors to whoever asks, but instead that there is so much data in the first place. A school with cameras everywhere -- even one that perfectly safeguards recorded video in perpetuity -- is teaching children that everything they do is on the record, ready to be marshalled as evidence against them at any point in the future. (To borrow a term from idlewords[1], such an environment conditions its occupants to a total lack of "ambient privacy.") Maybe that's the world we live in today, but it sucks. [1]: https://idlewords.com/2019/06/the_new_wilderness.htm https://idlewords.com/2019/06/the_new_wilderness.htm