this post was submitted on 16 Feb 2026
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I've opted out of the school Chromebooks for my kids because they have computers running real GNU at home. We should all be outraged that schools are pushing a locked-down surveillance/content consumption-only platform, as opposed to something like a Raspberry Pi that actually empowers kids to have real computer literacy.
This - like most problems we've created in the US - comes down to money. Google will often donate/grant Chromebooks to schools in order to create future ~~addicts~~ customers. It would cost schools a lot more to do what's right (or at least better) for their students, so they don't do that thing.
yup, it's the same playbook Apple had in the 80's and 90's. Get them into schools and get everyone used to their ecosystem so they would buy their products after graduating. Bill Gates did the same thing in the 90's to outfit computer labs in schools with a bunch of Dell computers.
I'm curious to know if anyone here has ever approached the school IT department to ask what steps they take to mitigate or eliminate surveillance and tracking in these devices. I know it's inherent in Google products to begin with, but do they even try? Or pretend to try? Or admit they don't care?
I did! The IT department literally laughed at me. I also tried to get them to let teachers install uBlock Origin, because they apparently will watch educational YouTube videos in class sometimes, and then get random ads for everyone to suffer under. But uBlock Origin doesn't have their support... Ironically, they only support Windows computers and iPhones on the school network. Android, MacOS, and Linux are all officially unsupported.
Thank you for your service. That's not surprising, but still disappointing. Do they install DNS filters locally on the machines at all? My work computers do that.
Well, I unfortunately failed.
No, the kids are allowed to bring their own laptops, because some rich parents insisted on their kids using MacBooks. I tried pushing Linux for the kiddo, but turns out whatever CISCO wifi system the school is using actively blocks Linux (including, for some reason, black listing the arch repos). A lot of stuff is blocked — though easily bypassed by VPNs or the wireguard router proxy I set up — by wifi black lists, including random stuff like duckduckgo and dict.cc
Actually, I did get an ad for a vibrator on dict.cc once, so maybe that makes sense after all. I, a man. Not sure what I'd use it for.
I'm unfortunately not a parent, just a relative, so there is only so much I can do to harass the school about it. I also live abroad, so 🤷 — I try though.
Well at least they had it questioned and now they know some parents might actually care about this shit.
Not allowing specific OSs? Fuck dat. If I want to use Kali, I should be able to use Kali. I actually didn't know that was possible with DHCP. Gross.
The IT Department knows about all the problems it's the administration that does not care and won't let the IT people do anything. Also, you don't want to know how bad the procurement process is with most school systems.
Good point. I've never worked in education. I neglected the fact that they're just fulfilling orders. I believe you it's probably a shitshow with privacy and preemptive security procedures almost non-existent.
It's sorta the opposite. It's not that privacy and security are afterthoughts, it's that oversight and monitoring are baked into everything. They lean into lockdown browsers, mandatory on cameras for assessments, and a whole bunch of anti-cheat tech. Privacy and security are on the mind, they just want none of it.
Worse than that though, it's a carefully crafted economy where vendors knowingly supply incomplete and broken systems so that they have a continuous need to also sell professional services, training, and technical support. It's just like textbooks and curricula; crooked AF because they know that nobody is paying attention, and the entire system operates with an expectation of profound inefficiency.
I don't work for a school, but I apply default policies to stop tracking/telemetry on all the company computers. I wasn't asked to, nor do my coworkers seem to care nearly as much. So the answer is probably that it will entirely depend on the IT admin they hired and how much they care
I’ve asked about this a few times and I was told by our administration that every company we work with signs a data privacy agreement stating that they will not sell or compromise any sensitive student data. But I was also told that our administration team doesn’t usually follow up with these companies to make sure they’re following the rules. Therefore it’s an unfortunate situation of, “above my pay grade.” Also, when opting out of a Chromebook, you’re only making sure your kid doesn’t go home with one. Most, if not all, teachers don’t shy away from Google Classroom…
The school IT department is often the math teacher’s side hustle or a badly paid gamer dude with Microsoft certifications.
Surveillance and tracking is the least of their concerns.
GNU/Hurd... or GNU/Linux?
I've recently taken to calling it GNU+Linux.
Who cares, as long as it's copyleft?
Sounds great but I can guarantee no IT team wants to deal with this