UCSB faculty advises against ProctorU 'surveillance tool'

The faculty board at the University of California Santa Barbara (UCSB) had raised concerns about invasions of privacy and technical flaws in exam proctoring software ProctorU, calling on the university to end its relationship with the company. 

According (pdf) to the faculty board, ProctorU 'mines the data of our students, making them available to unspecified third parties, and therefore violates our students’ rights to privacy, and potentially implicates the university into becoming a surveillance tool.' 

It went on to cite the many types of sensitive personal data, including genetic, physiological, behavioural, gender identity, and biological characteristics, that ProctorU stated it collected and shared with third-parties.

The incident prompted ProctorU to send a cease-and-desist letter from David Vance Lucas at law firm Bradley accusing the faculty of 'defamation'. The letter was derided as intemperate and disproportionate and was not followed up on.

Research, advocacy 🧮

• UC Santa Barbara Faculty Association Board (2020). Letter to UCSB Chancellor Henry Yang (pdf)

News, commentary, analysis 🗞️

• https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2020/04/01/online-proctoring-college-exams-coronavirus/

• https://dailynexus.com/2020-03-16/ucsb-faculty-association-issues-letter-advising-against-the-use-of-proctoru-testing-services/

• https://www.businessinsider.com/remote-exam-test-proctor-software-glitches-privacy-facial-recognition-2020-11

• https://www.forbes.com/sites/seanlawson/2020/04/24/are-schools-forcing-students-to-install-spyware-that-invades-their-privacy-as-a-result-of-the-coronavirus-lockdown/

• https://www.techdirt.com/2020/03/26/can-proctoru-be-trusted-with-students-personal-data/

• https://reason.com/volokh/2020/03/28/can-proctoru-be-trusted-with-students-personal-data/ 

• https://medium.com/the-berkeley-table/remote-learning-companies-are-endangering-student-privacy-a1fe12435757