The public comments below were delivered at the Hillsborough County School Board Meeting on November 16, 2021:

Privacy is a human right and essential to freedom. 

Today you propose a $2.5M contract for a Camera and Access Control system.  These products are capable of contact tracing; identifying the infected child, their “zone”, contacts, and other unspecified personal data.  The company offers the artificial intelligence [AI] services facial and emotional recognition.  Whose data are they using to train their AI?  Is this going to be a repeat of the Polk County Schools 2013 iris scanning fiasco? That mess ushered in a new law prohibiting districts from biometric collection.

You approved a GPS Bus proposal that included 100,000 student RFID trackers. Our children are NOT your property to track.  That company advertises future uses of their RFIDs include behavioral intervention programs.

This district refused our opt out of lunchroom meal tracking even when we paid cash.  What is the compelling governmental interest you have in that data and how is it narrowly tailored?

Our experience: Once this district adopts tracking technologies like iReady, MyPaymentsPlus, Edsby, PlanetHS, Canvas it does NOT ALLOW opt outs.

This school district forces EdTech that tracks medical, dietary, psychological, and other personal data that is stored in the cloud. These are dossiers on children! China weaponizes data and systems like these. EdTech companies often share data with more vendors and partners; one privacy policy reveals they store data overseas.  Do U.S. laws apply overseas?

No one to my knowledge from this district has the permission or skill to critically inspect proprietary vendor software for compliance with law.

Student data collected can be transferred in a sale or merger.  Edmodo sold their EdTech platform to the Chinese Company NetDragon.  It seems there are NO laws governing this; it has been referred to as a national security problem.

Florida politicians are a decade late and counting on meaningful privacy legislation. 

Cathryn Moering
Hillsborough County School District Parent

Hillsborough County School Board Meeting Comments
November 16, 2021