Facial recognition in Victoria schools
Information Certainty: Documented
Deployment Purpose: Surveillance, Student Surveillance
| Summary |
|---|
| 0 |
Products and Institutions:
| Product Deployed | LoopLearn (FRT) |
|---|---|
| Institutions ⠉ | LoopSafe |
| Datasets | LoopLearn (Dataset) |
| Search software |
Status and Events:
| Status | Stopped |
|---|---|
| Events | End (1 December 2020, Documented, ?, No description) Start (2 January 2018, Documented, ?, No description) |
| Start Date | |
| End Date |
Users:
| Involved Entities | |
|---|---|
| Managed by | Department of Education and Training Victoria LoopSafe |
| Used by | Department of Education and Training Victoria LoopSafe |
Location:
| City | Melbourne |
|---|---|
| Country ⠉ | Australia |
Description[ ]
In 2018, it was revealed that a number of schools in Victoria had been trialling facial recognition with the support of the state.
Small cameras periodically scan classrooms, matching this information with photos of students from school records. If a student is missing, a notification is sent to a designated staff member. It’s been created by Australian start-up LoopLearn and is being tested at an unknown number of Victorian private schools, including Ballarat Clarendon College and Sacred Heart College in Geelong. It was due to be trialled at some state schools, including William Ruthven Secondary College. But a Department spokeswoman said William Ruthven Secondary College would no longer go ahead with the trial because the school had not done a full privacy impact assessment 1
In 2020, many had stop running the trials.
Though initial criticism led to a number of schools backing out of trials, Gizmodo Australia has learned of at least one school still conducting trials.Waverley College’s Waterford campus in Sydney’s Eastern Suburbs is currently undertaking a trial of the software in five classrooms, which started at the end of 2019 and is expected to run until the end of the first term in 2020 2
References
- a b "Minority report: crackdown on facial recognition technology in schools". (2018) <https://www.theage.com.au/national/victoria/minority-report-crackdown-on-facial-recognition-technology-in-schools-20181005-p5080p.html> Accessed: 2022-06-22
- a b "Australian Schools Have Been Trialling Facial Recognition Technology, Despite Serious Concerns About Children's Data". (2020) <https://www.gizmodo.com.au/2020/03/australian-schools-trial-facial-recognition-technology-looplearn/> Accessed: 2022-06-22