Online University Students Give Up Privacy Thanks To ProctorTrack

Online Students at Rutgers University are finding that attending online classes might not be as easy as they originally thought. Rutgers Univeristy uses ProctorTrack software that requires students to record their facial features, knuckles and personal identification details (photo ID) to verify their identity. Think that is bad? Once the software biometrically confirms who you are it then begins to track the students online activities. This means that your browser, webcam and microphone are all being monitored during the time you are logged in to prevent cheating on exams. This practice was brought to light in Rutgers student newspaper, New Brunswick Today, by Daniel Munoz. The thing that is really upsetting students is that this practice was started mid-course and it was too late to drop the class without getting dinged for dropping the course.

Emails about mandating the use of ProctorTrack were sent out during the THIRD WEEK of classes, said School of Arts and Sciences senior Betsy Chao. It was already too late to drop classes and so, students essentially have NO choice but to pay the fee.

It appears that the University gave no prior notice about the software and even worse the students are stuck with a $32 activation fee. ProctorTrack was created by Verificient Technologies and it appears to be a pretty invasive bit of software. The feature list (shown in the image below) shows that it monitors a students computer system activity, enforces identity protocols, blocks applications, detects with a camera if someone is in the field of view, detects if you are looking for answers online and does some key logging where it can detect if you are trying to copy/paste something or take screenshots. Is this a little much or justified to keep students from cheating?