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Sounds like CPS is due for some major policy changes. Schools should not be teaching students that this sort of intrusive infringement of their privacy is somet

Sounds like CPS is due for some major policy changes. Schools should not be teaching students that this sort of intrusive infringement of their privacy is something to be tolerated.

d1sxeyes 5y ago
I'm not sure I agree that this is an infringement of their privacy - or more accurately I think this is a reflection of the fact that there's no reasonable expectation of privacy in a public space (physical or virtual). It is perfectly normal in working circles that your activities on company owned devices or devices connected to a company network are monitored. If the school required everyone to purchase a private device and then install monitoring software on it, then I think it would be reasonable to argue that if they want to control it, they should pay for it. However, there was no such obligation here, OP simply bought a private device and expected to be able to connect it to a service someone else is paying for (yes, I know OP probably pays their taxes, and so is paying indirectly). They expected to take advantage of all the services provided by CPS without checking what the prerequisites for that might be.
- nybble41 5y ago
  > there's no reasonable expectation of privacy in a public space This is not a public space, it's a privately-owned Chromebook. It is not reasonable that merely accessing the school's (mandatory) web services from a privately owned device will result in monitoring software being installed on that device without so much as seeking consent from the device's owner (which is the parent here, not the student who is logging in). I blame Google here more than the schools. They're the ones that designed an OS which doesn't treat the device's rightful owner as the ultimate authority on which software gets installed. The school is just taking advantage of that design flaw, which is also wrong but hardly unexpected. Aside: Can anyone familiar with the CPS system chime in on whether it's actually necessary to sign in to the Chromebook using the CPS login credentials to access these web services? Do they perhaps check for specific extensions? If it just requires a Google login it should be possible to disable the automatic link between the web login and the device/browser login in the browser's settings (under "Sync and Google Services" disable "Allow Chrome Sign-in", or just use Incognito mode).
  - d1sxeyes 5y ago
    > This is not a public space, it's a privately-owned Chromebook. Well, privately owned things can exist in a public space too, with restrictions. For example, if I want to drive my privately owned car on a public road, I need to take steps (registering, attaching registration plates) to allow my car to be tracked and its usage monitored. I agree on the point that this is a decision made by Google, although I would say that if you attach a Windows device to a domain, settings can be set through group policies without the user's explicit consent.
    - nybble41 5y ago
      > … to drive my privately owned car on a public road, I need to take steps … to allow my car to be tracked and its usage monitored. Yes, for very restricted interpretations of "tracked" and "monitored" which are basically limited to mounting a unique license plate on the vehicle which can be passively scanned and used to look up the owner of the vehicle (not the driver). Without a warrant they aren't allowed to attach a GPS tracker for continuous real-time location or install a camera inside the car. The inside of the vehicle is still considered a private space which cannot be searched without probable cause. Moreover, the justification for the license plate and registration requirements is that the vehicle is physically within their territory, on public roads, which doesn't apply to the Chromebook situation. > … if you attach a Windows device to a domain, settings can be set through group policies without the user's explicit consent. This is not like attaching a Windows device to a domain. For one thing that requires local administrative privileges on the Windows device, whereas anyone can log into a CPS account on any Chromebook whether they own it or not. Here the student doesn't own the Chromebook, the parent does—if this were a Windows PC the student would not be the device's local administrator and would not have the ability to join it to a domain.
      - d1sxeyes 5y ago
        I don't own a Chromebook, but my understanding is that the monitoring would only run for the user with the CPS account, rather than for all users, is that wrong?

Sounds like CPS is due for some major policy changes. Schools should not be teaching students that this sort of intrusive infringement of their privacy is something to be tolerated.

d1sxeyes 5y ago

I'm not sure I agree that this is an infringement of their privacy - or more accurately I think this is a reflection of the fact that there's no reasonable expectation of privacy in a public space (physical or virtual). It is perfectly normal in working circles that your activities on company owned devices or devices connected to a company network are monitored. If the school required everyone to purchase a private device and then install monitoring software on it, then I think it would be reasonable to argue that if they want to control it, they should pay for it. However, there was no such obligation here, OP simply bought a private device and expected to be able to connect it to a service someone else is paying for (yes, I know OP probably pays their taxes, and so is paying indirectly). They expected to take advantage of all the services provided by CPS without checking what the prerequisites for that might be.

nybble41 5y ago
> there's no reasonable expectation of privacy in a public space This is not a public space, it's a privately-owned Chromebook. It is not reasonable that merely accessing the school's (mandatory) web services from a privately owned device will result in monitoring software being installed on that device without so much as seeking consent from the device's owner (which is the parent here, not the student who is logging in). I blame Google here more than the schools. They're the ones that designed an OS which doesn't treat the device's rightful owner as the ultimate authority on which software gets installed. The school is just taking advantage of that design flaw, which is also wrong but hardly unexpected. Aside: Can anyone familiar with the CPS system chime in on whether it's actually necessary to sign in to the Chromebook using the CPS login credentials to access these web services? Do they perhaps check for specific extensions? If it just requires a Google login it should be possible to disable the automatic link between the web login and the device/browser login in the browser's settings (under "Sync and Google Services" disable "Allow Chrome Sign-in", or just use Incognito mode).
- d1sxeyes 5y ago
  > This is not a public space, it's a privately-owned Chromebook. Well, privately owned things can exist in a public space too, with restrictions. For example, if I want to drive my privately owned car on a public road, I need to take steps (registering, attaching registration plates) to allow my car to be tracked and its usage monitored. I agree on the point that this is a decision made by Google, although I would say that if you attach a Windows device to a domain, settings can be set through group policies without the user's explicit consent.
  - nybble41 5y ago
    > … to drive my privately owned car on a public road, I need to take steps … to allow my car to be tracked and its usage monitored. Yes, for very restricted interpretations of "tracked" and "monitored" which are basically limited to mounting a unique license plate on the vehicle which can be passively scanned and used to look up the owner of the vehicle (not the driver). Without a warrant they aren't allowed to attach a GPS tracker for continuous real-time location or install a camera inside the car. The inside of the vehicle is still considered a private space which cannot be searched without probable cause. Moreover, the justification for the license plate and registration requirements is that the vehicle is physically within their territory, on public roads, which doesn't apply to the Chromebook situation. > … if you attach a Windows device to a domain, settings can be set through group policies without the user's explicit consent. This is not like attaching a Windows device to a domain. For one thing that requires local administrative privileges on the Windows device, whereas anyone can log into a CPS account on any Chromebook whether they own it or not. Here the student doesn't own the Chromebook, the parent does—if this were a Windows PC the student would not be the device's local administrator and would not have the ability to join it to a domain.
    - d1sxeyes 5y ago
      I don't own a Chromebook, but my understanding is that the monitoring would only run for the user with the CPS account, rather than for all users, is that wrong?