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My school installed something called 'Securus XT' onto my laptop. I knew it was meant to be a safeguarding thing but I didn't know they would be able to see every single thing I do on my own laptop (the school didn't give it to me). They saw things I was doing at home not even on the school Wifi and it just does not seem legal. I'm 16 and live in England.

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    There was a US case where a school did something like that and was sued and lost. But US law is rather different on such issues. Are you interested in the US case? Also, did the school require this software, or install it without permission?
    – David Siegel
    Dec 11, 2020 at 1:40
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    Why did you allow them to install it? Is it in their terms/policies that students must hand over devices to do that?
    – Greendrake
    Dec 11, 2020 at 5:02
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    How did they install the software? How were you informed about the purpose and functionality of the software? Was there a consent form? Some schools have forgotten that GDPR exists, and transparency is a core GDPR principle. It's easy for a school to mess this up when using spyware/proctoring software. Depending on the details, it might be appropriate to lodge a complaint with the ICO. But this depends crucially on why and how the software was installed.
    – amon
    Dec 11, 2020 at 6:44
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    They installed it because they apparently needed to install it for me to use the WIFI apparently. Before I asked for the WIFI to be set up I was not told that they would install it. I had no letters or anything, while they were setting it up the guy turned around to me and just said 'Can I install this safeguarding software?', I was not told any information about it or that it would see everything I did even at home. I felt like I couldn't say no because it was during the set up and I thought it would just ping the school when something dodgy was looked up at school.
    – Viktorija Denisova
    Dec 11, 2020 at 12:25
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    Privacy-wise and technically, it is advisable to clean / reinstall the whole system. Removing that spyware may not remove it completely. It may still sit in background silently letting its masters see your files, webcam, listen to the mic etc.
    – Greendrake
    Dec 11, 2020 at 13:39

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It is not illegal for anyone to install anything on your laptop - or other platform - with your consent.

You might get round that if you were too young to give legal consent… were you?

It might also be that you were not shown some part of what information should have been required for you to give "informed consent"… were you?

If you were neither too young nor not fully informed what will you rely on in court?

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  • Sorry, Anon. Viktorija Denisova's exposition is a text-book example of what I suggested… "I knew it was meant to be a safeguarding thing but I didn't know they would be able to see every single thing I do… (etc)… " might as well have been designed as a paraphrase of 'It might also be that you were not shown some part of what information should have been required for you to give "informed consent"… were you?' Why does that not work for you?
    – Robbie Goodwin
    Sep 1, 2022 at 17:37

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