ACLU Report – Digital Dystopia. The Danger in Buying What the EdTech Surveillance Industry is Selling [63 pages]: “Over the last two decades, a segment of the educational technology (EdTech) sector that markets student surveillance products to schools — the EdTech Surveillance industry — has grown into a $3.1 billion a year economic juggernaut with a projected 8% annual growth rate. The EdTech Surveillance industry accomplished that feat by playing on school districts’ fears of school shootings, student self-harm and suicides, and bullying — marketing them as common, ever-present threats. Capitalizing on its significant financial resources and political influence, the EdTech Surveillance industry has succeeded in shaping and controlling the narrative around its products. These companies flooded school officials with their own biased marketing materials, promoting their surveillance products as highly effective safety interventions that keep students safe, even though such claims lack independent, unbiased, substantiating evidence. The well-funded EdTech Surveillance industry has likewise benefited from its ability to drown out any discussion of the widespread harms their products cause students. As a result, from student communications monitoring to facial recognition technology, school districts are rapidly deploying a huge array of surveillance technologies to spy on their students in the name of “safety.” While buying these EdTech Surveillance products may make school districts feel safer, the reality is they do not keep students safe. In fact, student surveillance is not only ineffective as a safety measure, but it often harms students in the process and precludes schools from implementing more proven interventions. Education officials and school administrators play a vital role in determining how best to keep students safe. But as long as school districts continue to make decisions based on information provided by the very same companies that are seeking to sell schools their EdTech Surveillance products, the EdTech Surveillance industry, and not their students, will be the biggest beneficiary. “Digital Dystopia” is meant to equip school decisionmakers, influencers, and community members with the full and reliable information they need to make the best decisions possible when it comes to student surveillance technologies and keeping students safe.”