this post was submitted on 02 Sep 2024
478 points (100.0% liked)

Privacy

789 readers
5 users here now

A place to discuss privacy and freedom in the digital world.

Privacy has become a very important issue in modern society, with companies and governments constantly abusing their power, more and more people are waking up to the importance of digital privacy.

In this community everyone is welcome to post links and discuss topics related to privacy.

Some Rules

Related communities

Chat rooms

much thanks to @gary_host_laptop for the logo design :)

founded 5 years ago
MODERATORS
 

Some of the LinkedIn Responses are direct and on-point, and also hilariously/depressingly based depending on how you look at it:

EDIT: In hindsight, I think I should've looked into posting this in a different community.. It's closer to a silly "innovation".. soo.. is this considered FUD? I also don't support smoking or vaping, especially among kids. Original title had "privacy-violating" before the "solution".

top 50 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] verdigris@lemmy.ml 90 points 2 months ago

Good God I hate linkedin types. Imagine thinking writing an app that literally just displays a single notification is worthy of making a whole post about. They basically wrote a Hello World app for Android TV. And I'm sure they got paid like 40k by some poor school district to do so.

[–] fubarx@lemmy.ml 71 points 2 months ago

How long before the students gamify it to see who can generate the most alerts?

[–] quant@leminal.space 60 points 2 months ago (1 children)

At least there are some criticisms. Considering it's LinkedIn, forever, it will get drowned by a sea of synergy pivoting lunatics.

[–] uberstar@lemmy.ml 20 points 2 months ago

Rare LinkedIn ✨positive vibes✨ theater going off-script

[–] SSJMarx@lemm.ee 52 points 2 months ago

we hope this will reduce vaping through social pressure

The social pressure of all of your friends knowing that you're cool and break the rules?

[–] brokenlcd@feddit.it 47 points 2 months ago (3 children)

In my high school they managed to rip the alarm's siren off the wall without triggering it; if these kids have even an 1/8 th of the ingenuity they had, these things aren't gonna last

[–] Chuymatt 5 points 2 months ago (3 children)

Plastic bag and a rubber band, my good sir!

load more comments (3 replies)
[–] possiblylinux127@lemmy.zip 4 points 2 months ago

That seems like a management issue.

They can see the time it went offline and then the time you walked out of the bathroom. It doesn't take much to put it together.

Also I think these devices are designed to be resistant to tampering.

[–] wise_pancake@lemmy.ca 2 points 2 months ago

Do kids prefer to not have doors then? Because I’m reading a lot of messed up headlines where the school removes the stall and bathroom doors and kids lose their privacy.

I’d rather have the TV with an alert than have to do competitive pooping.

[–] edinbruh@feddit.it 38 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Tech Bros make a panopticon and call it a novel approach

[–] tetris11@lemmy.ml 11 points 2 months ago

A panopticon where it's assumed that the inmates will repeatedly smash the doors, and the prison guards will repeatedly have to order new ones.

*sips beer* ah, the cycle of business

[–] lightnsfw@reddthat.com 32 points 2 months ago

Imagine paying taxes for education and they spend it on shit like this.

[–] kibiz0r@midwest.social 25 points 2 months ago

As it was with standardized testing, so shall it be with personal behavior: the goal is not to inform the student why, but to enforce compliance.

[–] SitD@lemy.lol 24 points 2 months ago (2 children)

I'll chime in with a weird take: this is a privacy community, we are united in a sense of defending our peaceful and unproblematic browsing on the internet and sending messages to friends from lunatics who seem to want everyone treated with the suspicion of highest criminal activity. the article posted describes a "privacy infringement" onto someone who not only has already broken the rule, but strongly publicized it by making people have to smell it. the perpetrators didn't even have an expectation of privacy, so the premise is ridiculous.

I'll say it like this: if the tv detects nicotine patches on someone's skin, then i pick up the torches and pitchforks.

[–] shottymcb@lemm.ee 22 points 2 months ago (2 children)

This may be a controversial take, but maybe we shouldn't surveil children in bathrooms full stop.

[–] Allero@lemmy.today 9 points 2 months ago (1 children)

There's no indication they use cameras in there. It's most likely just a sensor for vape smoke, similar to your common fire alarm.

And if it makes bathrooms a place where everyone can breathe without inhaling nicotine, I'm all for it. This is not a serious privacy concern.

[–] urheber@discuss.tchncs.de 4 points 2 months ago

Anything that picks anything up in a bathroom is a privacy concern.

In usual schools teachers are required to walk through every bathroom once in every break because the children are hiding in there to skip going in the yard. I do think this is much more annoying though.

[–] wise_pancake@lemmy.ca 3 points 2 months ago

I think your take is too far. It’s just beyond reasonable.

If a teacher were outside the room and heard a loud crash, they’d go investigate. This is doing the same thing.

It isn’t identifying individuals, it doesn’t record any information about a person, it simply flags that somebody is breaking the rules and is worth taking a look.

This is about the least invasive technological solution you could get.

And it’s a heck of a lot better than alternatives like removing the stall doors.

[–] Nobilmantis@feddit.it 20 points 2 months ago

This. It's a sensor, detecting only a specific air type. Not a camera, not a microphone. It doesn't have to do with privacy, this is not "scan and collect data about all to punish one" and cannot be turned into one.

I'll agree it's a fuc**ing dumb idea. Like utter useless garbage. Classic capitalistic "fix behavioral trash-consumption issue with overpriced fancy tech products that sound amazing in theory and are garbage in practice, without fighting the problem at the root". Screenshot comment said tax moeny but I'm willing to bet this is some kind of private school.

[–] possiblylinux127@lemmy.zip 24 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (2 children)

I am all for vape detectors. They only detect the fumes and aren't really that invasive. They are basiclly specialized fire alarms.

Nicotine is very bad for developing brains. I don't understand why you are ok with minors using it in a public school of all things.

[–] samwise_gamgee 14 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (1 children)

It's not really the detector that I have a problem with here, it's the "reduce vaping incidents through social influence" part. Their plan (as I understand it) is to have a display outside the washroom to tell other kids that the person in the washroom is vaping and essentially get them to quit through public shaming, which is both cruel and ineffective. If the detector instead alerted teachers privately that there was someone vaping in the washroom then the teachers would deal with it appropriately, I think it could be okay.

My brother used to vape back in high school, and punishment never got him to stop, it just made him get more creative about how he hid it. When he eventually did quit after he graduated, he chose to because he knew it was harmful.

[–] possiblylinux127@lemmy.zip 6 points 2 months ago

I think it is a bigger issue. I think the vaping companies need to be held liable for targeting under age kids.

I think long term the idea is to keep them from starting to begin with. That's hard to do but getting it out of school will reduce the spread of the addiction. It definitely will be appreciated by the students who don't vape and don't want to smell or inhale it.

[–] BaroqueInMind@lemmy.one 7 points 2 months ago (1 children)
[–] possiblylinux127@lemmy.zip 9 points 2 months ago (1 children)

It is literally a glorified smoke alarm.

Although, I am sure it is a slippery slope. Next the may want to install CO2 detectors and water line monitoring. They even may install pencil sharpeners in the classroom

[–] BaroqueInMind@lemmy.one 4 points 2 months ago

They might also finally getting around to deterring school shooters by mounting those cool AI powered Samsung smart guns they recently installed at the Korean DMZ

[–] orca@orcas.enjoying.yachts 23 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

I’m in tech and could never take myself seriously ever again if I built this.

[–] uriel238@lemmy.blahaj.zone 23 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Kids figure out how to provide false positives in 3... 2... 1...

[–] ByteOnBikes@slrpnk.net 10 points 2 months ago

Doing minor "crime" in school was how I became a programmer!

[–] Leyley@lemmy.ml 22 points 2 months ago (2 children)

Schools are more like prisons nowadays

[–] Hupf@feddit.org 7 points 2 months ago

Start them early

load more comments (1 replies)
[–] SpaceCowboy@lemmy.ca 22 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Sure it seems draconian, but how else are we going to get the kids to stop vaping and start smoking cigarettes like we did when we were in high school?

Won't someone please think of Phillip Morris' profit margins?

[–] Allero@lemmy.today 8 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (3 children)

Doesn't Phillip Morris profit from vapes, too?

Bringing vapes as a popular nicotine delivery system is literally the way tobacco companies are able to proliferate and return smoking into fashion.

Also, smoking should be prohibited as well. Not only because it hurts the smokers themselves, but because others are affected without their consent.

load more comments (3 replies)
[–] todd_bonzalez@lemm.ee 12 points 2 months ago (1 children)

SIMlink 4G

Are these sensors connected to a cell network? What the hell? More than half my life ago, when I was in high school, we had wifi...

[–] ExcessShiv@lemmy.dbzer0.com 19 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

Yeah but putting it on 4G gives them a reason to charge for continuous use of the system and lock them in to their web based proprietary platform.

[–] MonkderVierte@lemmy.ml 11 points 2 months ago

Quite an expensive toy for the children. Because the boys will play around with it.

[–] Someonelol@lemmy.dbzer0.com 10 points 2 months ago

This is reminiscent of the dystopian "name and shame" displays China has for jaywalkers. Good job, tech bro! Another innovation in our developing surveillance state.

https://m.youtube.com/shorts/GpipnHfxXZI

[–] linkhidalgogato@lemmy.ml 10 points 2 months ago (2 children)

i dont see how this is a violation of anyones privacy and trying to get kids to not get addicted to drugs is a pretty fucking good cause.

[–] toastal@lemmy.ml 4 points 2 months ago

Assuming this is just a sensor for air quality tuned to this use case, I would probably have to agree. So long as it isn’t tracking specific students or taking photos, this is about as privacy invansize as the motion detector that opens automatic doors… or any old carbon monoxide or other detector which are used to legit protect public safety, just as preventing children from the claws of the tobacco industry.

[–] Allero@lemmy.today 3 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (1 children)

Lemmy generally has a pro-drugs sentiment, which is certainly unsettling.

Also, can I visit bathrooms and not get into clouds of vape smoke, pretty please?

[–] linkhidalgogato@lemmy.ml 2 points 2 months ago (1 children)

i mean im all for letting people approach drugs as they please but, someone smoking weed once in a while with some frinds is not the same as massive corporations flooding media as specifically media for children with propaganda to get them addicted to nicotine. Being pro that isnt so much being pro drug as its being a corporate bootlicker and downright irresponsible.

load more comments (1 replies)
[–] pe1uca@lemmy.pe1uca.dev 9 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Well, seems they already had the vaping sensors implemented and they're just announcing the notifications implementation... How hard is to just build am android app that displays a list and a popup?

load more comments (1 replies)
[–] krolden@lemmy.ml 9 points 2 months ago

I dont remember them trying this hard to get me to stop smoking cigarettes in the bathroom.

[–] KingThrillgore@lemmy.ml 8 points 2 months ago (1 children)

I have a better solution: Run these videos on the screens in the hallways 24/7 to outcringe the vapers.

load more comments (1 replies)
[–] LodeMike@lemmy.today 6 points 2 months ago

How to get overdoses from pills instead of highly controllable doses from vape pens.

[–] SaltySalamander@fedia.io 5 points 2 months ago

I 100% support this initiative.

[–] Rozauhtuno@lemmy.blahaj.zone 4 points 2 months ago

🎉 Exciting news!

Oh God, no!

[–] ArcaneSlime@lemmy.dbzer0.com 4 points 2 months ago

(In response to the OOP, not the OP here)

Fuck off snitch mind your own goddamn business!

[–] Cornflake_Dog@lemmy.wtf 3 points 2 months ago

At least in the United States, most schools are not a place of privacy as the schools have a certain right to authority over their pupils. Consider Tinker v. Des Moines and what it meant for freedom of speech in schools. That case won students the right to freedom of expression. It's important, but in certain cases it becomes limited by Morse v. Frederick, a case that ultimately meant that such expression must not disrupt the learning environment. All of this is to say that students have certain freedoms until expressing those freedoms is disruptive to the learning experience, and I don't think there's any solid argument that would not consider vaping disruptive to the learning environment. Considering this as an invasion of privacy is a moot point when you consider that students don't really have the same rights as adults, especially in public school situations.

[–] ZealousSealion@discuss.tchncs.de 3 points 2 months ago

• Not an invasion of privacy.

• Activating a sprinkler would be a better deterrent than sending an alert to Simon.

load more comments
view more: next ›