Within the state of Texas, multiple students throughout school districts are being affected by the educational software known as GoGuardian. This may seem harmless at first, even helpful to an extent, but the reality is that this is a dangerous software that can easily be seen as an invasion of privacy. On top of the danger GoGuardian poses to student privacy, it can also violate students first amendment rights.

Have you ever enjoyed the privacy of your own home, or perhaps just your room? Well, that's too bad, because if GoGuardian is installed, teachers and administrators alike can access the camera of any school managed device and basically spy on you if they wanted to. 

As a student in the state of Texas this kind of software makes me worry for my own privacy as well as my fellow student’s privacy. When I'm at home, I feel safe, like no one can watch me or surveillance me or my actions. GoGuardian, however, can give a teacher or administrator full live feed from a school managed device without asking for the students, or anyone’s permission.

On top of the major invasion of privacy, GoGuardian also gives schools the ability to block sites that could support a certain political standpoint, or websites that support LGBTQ+. This censorship of media is a blatant infringement of students first amendment rights. It may seem like over-reaction to outright abolish the use of the software in Texas, however looking at reviews from trustpilot show that many others agree in how bad this "education" software really is.

Another problematic feature of GoGuardian, is how it can allow school officials to look at your search history and mark a student as "at risk." This causes GoGuardian to gather location data on the school device, and anyone with access to this data can easily make a profile on the student. GoGuardian assures they de-identify data before giving it to third parties, however, not only can the de-identified data easily be tracked back to a single student, but the fact that they give this data out to any third parties on its own is concerning. Moreover, some students are concerned about how GoGuardian lets school officials to control your computer, allowing access to students social security.

GoGuardian also uses a feature called the "GoGuardian Beacon" which alerts administrators if a student is planning to commit suicidal acts or a potential school shooting. This would be a great feature, if not for how inaccurate it is. take the case of Mehgan Feby (a counselor in the Colonial School District near Wilmington, Delaware) who "got a phone call through a platform called GoGuardian Beacon" when a student who didn't actually want to die searched, “how to die." along with other cases where GoGuardian beacon reported the planning of a school shooting when a student was in reality, searching on guns used in the civil war.

After everything I've told you, and hopefully a readthrough on the articles below, think to yourself, “do I really want this kind of thing monitoring me?" or if you're a parent, “do I want this thing watching my kid?" If you're all for the abolishment of the use of this software, please, consider helping us change Texas for the better.

If you wish to go more in depth on this issue, click the links below.

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2023/10/how-goguardian-invades-student-privacy​

https://www.govtech.com/education/k-12/monitoring-student-searches-raises-questions-about-privacy​

https://redwoodbark.org/97559/opinion/goguardian-crosses-the-line-on-privacy