Today, we students at Warwick Business school have received a message that our course was selected to trial surveillance software Proctorio. Undoubtedly, others are affected too or will be in the future. There is no need to "trial" this software as other universities have already done so and many have rejected further use. We need to act now to stop this.

Proctorio's design invades student rights, is inherently ableist and discriminatory, and goes against peer reviewed research about memory and recollection. The company's leadership, including CEO Mike Olsen, insults and calls into question the integrity of academic rigor and of peer-reviewed research, and demonstrates a complete disregard for student privacy and for broader academic principles. The organisation itself has gone as far as taking to court people who dare to rise concerns about its operations.  

Procotrio requires you to scan your room, monitors your screen keystrokes and and invades your settings. It goes through your search history, cookies and browser settings. It is safe to say that there is no privacy left with this software.

Procotrio is discriminatory and ableist. It flags students who look away from their laptops -- likely to be people with ADHD like symptoms. Even the best Machine Learning algorithms fail to recognise darker faces, forcing the companies to ask students with darker skin tones to use more light. We students at Warwick find this unacceptable. The University of Warwick states that it does not tolerated discrimination -- but is willing to trial software that is inherently ableist and discriminatory.

Use of Procotrio and similar software puts undue stress on students during already difficult times. It magnifies the anxiety surrounding online learning, particularly of those students already suffering from mental health issues. Students already face stress from having to pay rent whilst not living on campus, or from having to invest into better tech to support online learning. Students face internet problems and have to do exams in constant fear of losing connection. Now students also have to worry about being accused of cheating because of an algorithm. Instead of providing support and better mitigation policies the university introduces Procotrio and has the courage to call it an "enhancement". 

We understand the university want to reduce cheating. However, there are many methods that can facilitate rigorous assessment. without infringing on students rights. Individual assignments, group work, online quizzes or just using original questions. Procotrio is a lazy solution that does not tackle the core issue.

I urge you to sign the petition to stop this development in its tracks to protect the student community at Warwick.

References:

https://the-peak.ca/2020/07/proctorio-faces-backlash-after-ceo-breaches-privacy-of-ubc-student/

https://www.theverge.com/2020/10/22/21526792/proctorio-online-test-proctoring-lawsuit-universities-students-coronavirus

https://hybridpedagogy.org/our-bodies-encoded-algorithmic-test-proctoring-in-higher-education/

https://sitn.hms.harvard.edu/flash/2020/racial-discrimination-in-face-recognition-technology/ . 

https://academic.oup.com/cercor/article/29/3/1075/4836786