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Legislators worry about student privacy with facial recognition technology in Montana schools – Daily Montanan [1]

['Keith Schubert', 'More From Author', '- October']

Date: 2022-10-05  

As many as 30 Montana schools could be contracting with a school security company that offers facial recognition technology surveillance as a safety measure, and the one school confirmed to be using the technology was hacked last year.

Of the nearly 30 schools that contract with Verkada, one school district — Sun River Valley School District — uses the facial recognition technology offered by the company.

“I do believe there might be 35 districts that have a contract with Verkada,” said Rob Watson, executive director of School Administrators of Montana at a legislative meeting on Monday. “I don’t know if they’re all using (facial recognition technology), because that’s obviously a step up from just a basic surveillance camera.”

The special Economic Affairs Interim Committee meeting was called after a Montana Public Radio story revealed that not only was Sun River Valley School District using facial recognition technology, but that it had been hacked one year ago.

The committee has spent a decent portion of the interim studying how facial recognition technology is used in the state, hearing from a wide variety of stakeholders, including law enforcement and companies who offer the technology, but not from schools. The discussion around the technology has been based in how to protect Montanans’ constitutionally heightened right to privacy with the use of the technology.

“We’re seeing more and more uses come up. I think it shows that it’s more pressing than we thought,” Rep. Katie Sullivan, D-Missoula, told the Daily Montanan on Tuesday. Sullivan has been a leader in advocating for more laws regulating the use of the technology in the state — currently, there are none.

Advocates of the technology have said it can be helpful in solving crimes — the same reason Sun River Valley School District Superintendent Dave Marzolf said he opted to use the technology in his district.

“(The technology) is strictly used for safety … at any given minute, we’re two hours away from law enforcement help, so anything that we have in our small district is useful,” he told the committee on Monday.

Legislators also raised concerns about who has access to the data after MTPR reported the Cascade County Sheriff’s Department had access. Marzolf said the Sheriff’s Department does not have access to the facial recognition technology data stored by the district, and in an email to the committee, Cascade County Sheriff Jesse Slaughter reaffirmed that his office does not have access.

“Only three people can view it in a district, my two principals or myself,” Marzolf said.

The biggest point of concern from legislators was how the students’ data is being protected.

Kris Goss, an attorney with the Montana School Boards Association, said companies offering the technology must abide by the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act, Child Information Privacy Act, and the Montana Pupil Online Personal Information Protection Act, which was passed in 2019 and established guidelines for companies who handle Montana students’ data.

“With regard to facial recognition technology, it’s an emerging issue that my peers around the country and other state associations serving school boards are beginning to understand and take notice of, similar to the members of the committee this interim,” Goss said on Monday.

But even with the federal, state and local policies governing students’ data, Goss said there is room for improvement.

“I think there is an opportunity to make sure that the vendors are accountable, that the vendors understand the importance of privacy,” he said.

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