Today’s links Company that makes millions spying on students will get to sue a whistleblower: The BC Appeals Court drops a *terrible* decision in Ian Linkletter’s anti-SLAPP against Proctorio. Red Team Blues Chapter One, part four: “I was pickpocketed, guv’nah!” Hey look at this: Delights to delectate. This day in history: 2013, 2018, 2022 Colophon: Recent publications, upcoming/recent appearances, current writing projects, current reading Company that makes millions spying on students will get to sue a whistleblower (permalink) Yesterday, the Court of Appeal for British Columbia handed down a jaw-droppingly stupid and terrible decision, rejecting the whistleblower Ian Linkletter’s claim that he was engaged in legitimate criticism when he linked to freely available materials from the ed-tech surveillance company Proctorio: https://www.bccourts.ca/jdb-txt/ca/23/01/2023BCCA0160.htm It’s been a minute since Linkletter’s case arose, so I’ll give you a little recap here. Proctorio is a massive, wildly profitable ed-tech company that sells a surveillance tool to monitor students while they take high-stakes tests from home. The tool monitors the student’s computer and the student’s face, especially their eye-movements. It also allows instructors and other personnel to watch the students and even take control of their computer. This is called “remote invigilation.” This is ghastly in just about every way. For starters, Proctorio’s facial monitoring software embeds the usual racist problems with machine-learning stuff, and struggles to recognize Black and brown faces. Black children sitting exams under Proctorio’s gimlet eye have reported that the only way to satisfy Proctorio’s digital phrenology system is to work with…Pluralistic: Company that makes millions spying on students will get to sue a whistleblower; Red Team Blues Chapter 1, part four (20 Apr 2023)