Chad Marlow

Companies like Gaggle, GoGuardian, Securly, and Navigate360 spy on US children’s private texts, emails and social media posts

When it premiered last month, the Amazon docuseries Spy High reminded Americans how, in 2009, Pennsylvania’s Lower Merion school district remotely activated its school-issued laptop webcams to capture 56,000 pictures of students outside of school, including in their bedrooms. There are few places where the use of student surveillance technology feels more threatening than in the room where children undress, sleep and engage in other private conduct, and that is why the intrusions featured in Spy High are so disturbing.