GoGuardian

GoGuardian is an educational software company founded in 2015 and based in Los Angeles, California. The company's services monitor student activity online, filter content, and alert school officials to possible suicidal or self-harm ideation. It also offers a network-level filtering solution marketed for bring your own device environments, GoGuardian DNS. Concerns have been raised over these functions, claiming the software is spyware.

Product history

GoGuardian was founded in 2015 and is based in Los Angeles, CA. Its feature set includes computer filtering, tracking, monitoring, and management, as well as usage analytics, activity flagging, and theft recovery for ChromeOS devices. GoGuardian also offers filtering functionality for third-party tools such as YouTube.

In June 2015, GoGuardian reported it was installed in over 1,600 of the estimated 15,000 school districts in the United States.

In January 2015, Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) chose GoGuardian to support their 1:1 device rollout program. This provides LAUSD device tracking and grade-level-specific filtering, and facilitates compliance with the Children's Internet Protection Act (CIPA).

In September 2015, the company released GoGuardian for Teachers, a tool to monitor student activity and control student learning. In January 2016, GoGuardian announced the launch of Google Classroom integration for GoGuardian for Teachers.

In May 2018, GoGuardian was acquired by private equity firm Sumeru Equity Partners and appointed Tony Miller to their board of directors.

In August 2018, GoGuardian launched Beacon, a software system installed on school computers that analyzes students' browsing behavior to alert people concerned about students at risk of suicide or self-harm.

In November 2020, GoGuardian merged with Pear Deck.

Student privacy

GoGuardian products allow teachers and administrators to view and snapshot students' computer screens, close and open browser tabs, and see running applications. GoGuardian can collect information about any activity when users are logged onto their accounts, including data originating from a student's webcam, microphone, keyboard, and screen, along with historical data such as browsing history. This collection can be performed whether students connect from school-provided or personally-owned devices. Parents have raised privacy concerns over this data collection, claiming the software is spyware.

In 2016, researcher Elana Zeide raised the concern that the use of GoGuardian software for suicide prevention, though "well-meaning", could result in "overreach". Zeide further noted that legitimate personal reasons could motivate a student to wish to search for sensitive information in private. According to Zeide, this concern is compounded by the fact that school devices may be the only devices for lower-income students. American School Counselor Association ethics chair Carolyn Stone said that GoGuardian's ability to track web searches conducted at home is "intrusive" and is "conditioning children to accept constant monitoring" as normal.

Until October 2015, GoGuardian software was able to track keystrokes and remotely activate student webcams. GoGuardian said that the features were removed as part of its "ongoing commitment to student privacy."

GoGuardian technical product manager Cody Rice stated in 2016 that schools had control over GoGuardian's collection and management of data and that no client had complained about privacy.

GoGuardian faced scrutiny by the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) in 2023, over the inconsistent filtering presented by it. The EFF has presented problems with GoGuardian Beacon being used to replace social workers and other mental health professionals in a school landscape. The EFF has also stressed the possibility of using the data collected by GoGuardian to track and to advertise to children under the age of 13. GoGuardian has also faced criticism for flagging LGBTQ keywords.

Recognition

* Inc. 500
* Deloitte's Fast 500
** In 2018, GoGuardian was named as the 27th fastest growing technology company in North America.
* Forbes 30 Under 30
** In January 2016, two of the company's co-founders, Aza Steel and Advait Shinde, were named to ''Forbes'' magazine's annual "30 Under 30" list in the Education category.
* International Design Awards Gold: GoGuardian Teacher
* 2016 Awards of Excellence Tech and Learning

References

Further reading

Spying on Students: School-Issued Devices and Student Privacy
a study by the Electronic Frontier Foundation

GoGuardian Beacon
{{Webarchive, url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210322154347/https://idesignawards.com/single-winner/9-20355-18/0/ , date=March 22, 2021 listed as a 2018 "Silver in Education / Behavioral correction tools" by International Design Awards

School Software Walks The Line Between Safety Monitor And 'Parent Over Shoulder'
by Larry Magid writing in Forbes

Internet safety
Child safety
Companies based in Los Angeles
Software companies based in California
Security companies of the United States
Computer security software
Software companies of the United States