Reader Chiara shares the following:
Politico has a good piece about the contractor(s) doing the monitoring.
“Chris Frydrych, the CEO of Geo Listening, says his service routinely alerts school principals to students whose posts indicate they’re feeling particularly stressed or angry. He also points administrators to students who share too much personal information online, leaving them vulnerable to cyber predators.
Boasts about cheating. Dares to act recklessly. Taunts. Threats. Trash talk about teachers. For $7,500 per school per year, his service will scoop it all up and report it all to administrators.
“Our philosophy is, if someone in China can type in your child’s user name and see what they’re posting publicly on social media, shouldn’t the people who are the trusted in adults in a child’s life see that information?” Frydrych said.
He responds to critics who worry about privacy violations by quoting a student tweet he spotted while monitoring a school: “Twitter is not your diary. Get over it.”
Read more:
http://www.politico.com/story/2015/03/cyber-snoops-track-students-116276.html#ixzz3V24EuBKl
Someone should inform this guy that he works for, and is paid by, the students and parents he’s sneering at. The arrogance is just incredible. The contractors we’re all paying seem to be running the show.
Read more:
http://www.politico.com/story/2015/03/cyber-snoops-track-students-116276.html#ixzz3V23ajlPV
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Someone should inform the school that it may be buying itself some significant liability by establishing that it knew or should have known that a student was being bullied, or depressed and considering suicide, or planning a violent crime, etc.
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I wondered about the same thing.
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Just because Pearson, et al CAN do this, it doesn’t mean they SHOULD be doing it. Rationalization can justify anything I suppose.
And when cyber spying is not enough, they will have to install cameras and recording devices in public places where children go.
And who is paying all the people to do the monitoring and notifying and so forth?
And what happens when the smart kids find ways around the monitoring?
All this for tests that are not needed.How absurd.
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The SPY INDUSTRY is well at work and making $$$$$.
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