Dutch students raise privacy concerns over online exam surveillance


AMSTERDAM: Dutch students have accused universities of violating their privacy by using monitoring software to prevent cheating in exams being conducted online because of the coronavirus.

Dutch universities have been scrambling to find ways of continuing during the coronavirus crisis after the government ordered campuses to shut down on March 12.

For exams, some have started using software that can access a student’s webcam, microphone, location data, browsing history and details of which programmes they are using, among them the University of Tilburg in southern Netherlands.

Thousands of students have signed a petition started by first-year psychology student Naomi de Leng and backed by the Dutch students’ union to demand that the university find an alternative.

“We also need to provide a webcam video of our entire personal space to make sure that we don’t cheat. It’s insane,” she told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.

“We have a lot of worries about our privacy and they don’t provide us with an alternative.”

The University of Tilburg said it understood the concerns, but needed to assess 130,000 exams before the start of the new academic year to avoid delays to people’s studies.

In a statement on its website, it said it was only using the most basic surveillance offered by the programme, called Proctorio, and all data collected would be deleted.

“The privacy infringement may even go further with a physical exam,” said Klaas Sijtsma, the university’s rector magnificus, who sits on the executive board, in the statement.

At least three other universities have made use of the software and more are testing it out in the Netherlands, where measures to curb the spread of the new coronavirus have been relatively relaxed.

The government has asked people to stay at home as much as possible and to keep their distance from others when outside, but many shops remain open.

The monitoring technology has been used in higher education in other European countries including France, Germany and Britain, but is most commonly used in the United States.

“I understand the university’s desire to take measures to limit fraudulent activities to the greatest extent possible, but there are potentially many ways of doing this,” said Jurre Reus, a lawyer specialised in privacy at Dutch firm Houthoff.

“The university should be able to explain to the students what its assessment is from a privacy perspective.” – Thomson Reuters Foundation





Source link

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

payday smile logo

PaydaySmile.com is a financial technology company specializing in payday loans and financial solutions. With a keen focus on catering to payday lending needs, the company provides tailored loan options and tools to assist individuals seeking short-term financial assistance. It’s important to note that while we offer financial tools and resources, we are not a direct lender.

Advertiser Disclosure: This website is an independent, advertising-supported comparison service. The card offers that appear on this site are from companies from which this website receives compensation. This compensation may impact how and where products appear on this site (including, for example, the order in which they appear). This website does not include all card companies or all card offers available in the marketplace. This website may use other proprietary factors to impact card offer listings on the website such as consumer selection or the likelihood of the applicant’s credit approval.

© 2024 PaydaySmile.com . All Rights Reserved.