Stop "SmartPass" at SHS - Halt the 3rd Party Data Mining of our Children!
The Issue
We are a group of concerned Sandpoint High School Parents who truly fear for the security and well-being of our children in our public schools. We firmly believe that the use of SmartPass tracking software, being proposed to replace the current hall pass process in our schools, is creating an environment that is detrimental to the mental health of our growing kids and poses significant safety risks. The incessant tracking fosters an environment rife with anxiety, depression, insecurity, and stress. It also impacts our children's ability to self govern and it interferes with valuable lessons of self discipline. These harmful psychological impacts have been verified by trusted platforms such as “Psychology Today.” Also, SmartPass technology is not compliant with the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act and could lead to more issues with discrimination.
Moreover, the constant data mining exposes vulnerabilities that unscrupulous individuals can exploit. The sensitive data collected from our children could easily fall into the wrong hands causing severe repercussions including kidnapping, identity theft, future discrimination and much more.
As a matter of fact, Raptor technologies, the software provider of the SmartPass, recently acknowledged a huge data breach, which reportedly included more than 4 million student and teacher records. It was reported that the exposed documents contained highly sensitive information such as evacuation plans, maps, lists of students posing threats, medical records, court documents, and personal details of staff, students, and parents/guardians. You can get more information on this huge breach at:
https://thelyonfirm.com/blog/raptor-technologies-data-breach-investigation/
The school’s response to this is: “SmartPass does not use the CAIQ Version 4 or hold ISO 27001 certification, but they host their application and data on Google Cloud, which is FedRAMP ATO certified. SmartPass conducts third-party web penetration testing (last performed July 1, 2024) and uses static analysis tools for dependency vulnerability scans. Their data retention policy defaults to deletion within 1 year after a subscription ends unless a written request is made for a data dump or earlier deletion, and they are aligned with the NIST 1.1 Cybersecurity Framework. If our relationship with SmartPass ends, data will be deleted within 1 year unless otherwise requested.”
However, Google has already breached these safety guards of broken promises - In 2019, Google reached a record $170 million settlement with the U.S. Federal Trade Commission and New York’s Attorney General over allegations of violating children’s privacy laws. And just a few months ago in August 2024, Google paid out $65.8 million in a class-action settlement for nearly identical alleged violations of BIPA, including “collecting and storing biometric data of minor students who appeared in a photograph, in the photograph sharing and storage service known as Google Photos, without proper notice and consent.” Refer to link at end of document.
These Big Data Giants Have the Funds to Just Settle and Keep on Breaching the Data of our Children!
Please sign this petition now, time is of the essence. Sandpoint High School is planning to implement SmartPass February 27, 2025. Please note the SmartPass software is already in use at Clark Fork High School. We need to take a stand as a community and implore the responsible authorities to put a stop to the implementation of this invasive SmartPass, that threatens our children's confidentiality, mental health, and physical safety. Signing this petition is a call to immediately halt third-party data tracking, mining, and collection of data on our minor children in our public schools. Please sign the petition today.
Here are additional references:
Raptor Technologies (SmartPass) 4M records data breach
https://thelyonfirm.com/blog/raptor-technologies-data-breach-investigation/
Google settles biometric privacy case with parents:
https://academic.oup.com/nc/article/2024/1/niae039/7920510 A new psychological study has shown that when people know they are under surveillance it generates an automatic response of awareness of being watched, with implications for public mental health.
The link below discusses the known negative mental effects of tracking (surveillance) of people in the workplace, the same applies to our children in school. https://www.gao.gov/blog/why-do-i-feel-somebodys-watching-me-workplace-surveillance-can-impact-more-just-productivity
This link below is to a study citing references, its conclusion states: “Here, we provide a surprising yet unsettling finding that despite the report of little concern or preoccupation with being monitored, its effects on basic social processing are marked, highly significant, and imperceptible to the participants." https://academic.oup.com/nc/article/2024/1/niae039/7920510
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The Issue
We are a group of concerned Sandpoint High School Parents who truly fear for the security and well-being of our children in our public schools. We firmly believe that the use of SmartPass tracking software, being proposed to replace the current hall pass process in our schools, is creating an environment that is detrimental to the mental health of our growing kids and poses significant safety risks. The incessant tracking fosters an environment rife with anxiety, depression, insecurity, and stress. It also impacts our children's ability to self govern and it interferes with valuable lessons of self discipline. These harmful psychological impacts have been verified by trusted platforms such as “Psychology Today.” Also, SmartPass technology is not compliant with the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act and could lead to more issues with discrimination.
Moreover, the constant data mining exposes vulnerabilities that unscrupulous individuals can exploit. The sensitive data collected from our children could easily fall into the wrong hands causing severe repercussions including kidnapping, identity theft, future discrimination and much more.
As a matter of fact, Raptor technologies, the software provider of the SmartPass, recently acknowledged a huge data breach, which reportedly included more than 4 million student and teacher records. It was reported that the exposed documents contained highly sensitive information such as evacuation plans, maps, lists of students posing threats, medical records, court documents, and personal details of staff, students, and parents/guardians. You can get more information on this huge breach at:
https://thelyonfirm.com/blog/raptor-technologies-data-breach-investigation/
The school’s response to this is: “SmartPass does not use the CAIQ Version 4 or hold ISO 27001 certification, but they host their application and data on Google Cloud, which is FedRAMP ATO certified. SmartPass conducts third-party web penetration testing (last performed July 1, 2024) and uses static analysis tools for dependency vulnerability scans. Their data retention policy defaults to deletion within 1 year after a subscription ends unless a written request is made for a data dump or earlier deletion, and they are aligned with the NIST 1.1 Cybersecurity Framework. If our relationship with SmartPass ends, data will be deleted within 1 year unless otherwise requested.”
However, Google has already breached these safety guards of broken promises - In 2019, Google reached a record $170 million settlement with the U.S. Federal Trade Commission and New York’s Attorney General over allegations of violating children’s privacy laws. And just a few months ago in August 2024, Google paid out $65.8 million in a class-action settlement for nearly identical alleged violations of BIPA, including “collecting and storing biometric data of minor students who appeared in a photograph, in the photograph sharing and storage service known as Google Photos, without proper notice and consent.” Refer to link at end of document.
These Big Data Giants Have the Funds to Just Settle and Keep on Breaching the Data of our Children!
Please sign this petition now, time is of the essence. Sandpoint High School is planning to implement SmartPass February 27, 2025. Please note the SmartPass software is already in use at Clark Fork High School. We need to take a stand as a community and implore the responsible authorities to put a stop to the implementation of this invasive SmartPass, that threatens our children's confidentiality, mental health, and physical safety. Signing this petition is a call to immediately halt third-party data tracking, mining, and collection of data on our minor children in our public schools. Please sign the petition today.
Here are additional references:
Raptor Technologies (SmartPass) 4M records data breach
https://thelyonfirm.com/blog/raptor-technologies-data-breach-investigation/
Google settles biometric privacy case with parents:
https://academic.oup.com/nc/article/2024/1/niae039/7920510 A new psychological study has shown that when people know they are under surveillance it generates an automatic response of awareness of being watched, with implications for public mental health.
The link below discusses the known negative mental effects of tracking (surveillance) of people in the workplace, the same applies to our children in school. https://www.gao.gov/blog/why-do-i-feel-somebodys-watching-me-workplace-surveillance-can-impact-more-just-productivity
This link below is to a study citing references, its conclusion states: “Here, we provide a surprising yet unsettling finding that despite the report of little concern or preoccupation with being monitored, its effects on basic social processing are marked, highly significant, and imperceptible to the participants." https://academic.oup.com/nc/article/2024/1/niae039/7920510
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Petition created on February 25, 2025