So many privacy flags on this one, I'm shocked colleges are using this software.<p>Just a few highlights from the article that really stick out:<p><i>“You have to record your environment, you have to record the whole desk, under the desk, the whole room,” Molina recalled. “And you need to use a mirror to show that you don’t have anything on your keyboard.”</i><p><i>On top of that, if the wireless connection was disturbed during an exam, Molina said, students would receive an automatic zero — no excuses.</i><p><i>He said he didn’t realize he hadn’t sufficiently shown his notepaper to his webcam, or that his habit of talking through questions aloud would be considered suspicious.</i><p><i>“At the beginning of the exam, you leave the area for about one minute without explanation,” Merrill wrote in an email to Molina. She added that it looked like he was using his calculator for problems that did not require a calculation and that he solved certain problems too quickly. As a result, Molina was given an F in the course and his case was submitted to SDSU’s Center for Student Rights and Responsibilities, where he could appeal the decision.</i><p><i>Neekoly Solis, an SDSU junior and first-year transfer student, said each test-taker now has to verbally explain each of their calculations to their webcam every time they use their calculators during an exam.</i><p><i>Then, she had to show the camera her desk, and underneath her desk, with her bulky desktop computer. She realized she was in a pair of shorts, and her webcam was picking up — and recording — seconds of her bare legs that could be seen by her older male professor. She was creeped out.<p>“You have to do a crotch shot, basically,” said Jason Kelley, associate director of research at the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a digital privacy group based in San Francisco. He recalled watching a tutorial video from another proctoring system called HonorLock, horrified as he watched the video subject do a long pan of their body.</i><p>Some other unsettling parts about the data their collecting:<p><i>Respondus’s website states that the default data retention period for Respondus Monitor is five years, but the client can change that.</i><p>And worse yet, what about the appeal process? Not exactly in the students favor:<p><i>Molina appealed. But even well into the fall semester and over a month after the accusations were filed, the office had canceled his scheduled meetings twice due to coronavirus-related emergencies.</i><p><i>After the third rescheduling, Molina finally had the chance to explain himself. One week later, he received a letter of “no action,” meaning the university would not pursue disciplinary action against him. He forwarded the letter to his business administration professors and requested that he get the grade he deserved. He said he had already emailed the student ombudsman twice, and never received a reply. Merrill finally gave him his grade back, almost two months after he’d received an F in the class.</i><p>In conclusion, you have a dodgy software program, that's highly invasive to your privacy. It can take months to get your appeal figured out. In the meantime, you're left to twist in the wind. And worst of all, the company keeps your data for five years.