Schools Must Warn Students, Families If Big Brother Is Watching

by John Mooney, NJSpotlight.com

The provocatively named Anti-Big Brother Act arose out of a situation in Pennsylvania in which a school district was accused of spying on students through their school-issued laptops, including taking literally thousands of pictures.

New Jersey legislators seeking to prevent such incidents here passed the new law this past spring. It requires districts to notify students and their families that computers issued to them may be equipped to record their locations and use. It also says that such information will not be used “in a manner that would violate the privacy rights of the student or any individual residing with the student.”

But that’s where things can get murky, so the state Department of Education this week released additional guidelines about what the law covers and what other policies should also be in place to cover extenuating circumstances.

For instance, the guidelines explains that the law specifically pertains to computers furnished to students for use outside of schools, something that is not the norm in New Jersey but is hardly rare anymore, with some schools providing every student with a computer.

Read more at NJSpotlight.com