"New Study Examines Privacy and Security Perceptions of Online Education Proctoring Services"
The COVID-19 pandemic has forced educational institutions to quickly transition to remote learning and exam taking, thus leading to an increase in the use of online proctoring services, such as restricted browser modes, video/screen monitoring, local network traffic analysis, and eye tracking, to combat student cheating. A team of researchers led by Adam Aviv, an associate professor of computer science at George Washington University, examined the security and privacy perceptions of students taking proctored exams. They analyzed user reviews of eight proctoring services' browser extensions and then surveyed students online. Exam proctoring browser extensions use a technique known as "URL match patterns" to turn on whenever they find a specific URL. These URL patterns correspond to various URLs, most of which are associated with online course content. However, regardless of whether the student is taking an exam, generic URL patterns (e.g., any URL with /courses/ or /quizzes/) can activate the browser extension. Therefore, the data collection and monitoring features of proctoring browser extensions may be active on different websites even when a student is not taking an exam. Students understood that in order to take exams safely from home during the pandemic, they would have to give up some privacy. Yet, many students were concerned about disclosing personal information to proctoring companies to take an exam. These concerns include the identity verification process, the amount of information collected by these companies, and the requirement to install third-party online exam proctoring software on their personal computers. This article continues to discuss findings from the study "Examining the Examiners: Students' Privacy and Security Perceptions of Online Proctoring Services."