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Four ways China’s schools are keeping tabs on students with new technology
Facial recognition cameras and tracking bracelets found in Chinese campuses
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This article originally appeared on ABACUS
Schools in China have increasingly turned to electronic bracelets to locate the whereabouts of students. These devices represent a range of new technologies being used to monitor students both on and off campus. Here's a look at some examples.
SMART BANDS
A school in southern China recently drew an uproar on social media after a blogger discovered that it has been trying to buy 3,500 radio-tracking bracelets to locate students on campus. The tender notice for these devices showed that the school wanted to track how many steps students have walked, how many times they have jumped, and how often they raised their hands.
The smart wristbands were being introduced to ensure students’ safety during gym classes, as well as alert them about latest changes in class arrangement, according to the school.
It wasn't the first campus in China to adopt that technology. A recent WeChat post by Tencent said clients of its smart campus platform are using smart bands to track where their students are. In a testimonial, one school principal told Tencent the smart band helped her learn the strong interest in art of one student, who was recorded to have hung out at the school's arts and craft corner 30 times more than her peers.
But this development has elicited concerns about privacy. One person wrote on Weibo: “It not only infringes on the students’ privacy. How do you guarantee that the information will be kept 100% confidential? What if there’s a data leak and criminals got hold of the data?”
GPS UNIFORMS
While it is easy to remove a bracelet, taking off your school uniform on campus is much harder.
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