The Trevor Project teams up with a student surveillance company accused of LGBTQ+ bias

[cbabe]

https://www.theguardian.com/education/2022/sep/30/trevor-project-gaggle-student-surveillance-lgbtq-bias

The Trevor Project teams up with a student surveillance company accused of LGBTQ+ bias

Many fear the partnership is a ‘seal of approval’ for a company whose surveillance tech disproportionately harms LGBTQ+ youth

Mark Keierleber
@mkeierleber
Fri 30 Sep 2022 07.15 EDT

Amid warnings from lawmakers and civil rights groups that digital surveillance tools could discriminate against at-risk students, a leading nonprofit devoted to the mental wellbeing of LGBTQ+ youth has formed a financial partnership with a tech company that subjects them to persistent online monitoring

Beginning in May, the Trevor Project, a high-profile nonprofit focused on suicide prevention among LGBTQ+ youth, began to list Gaggle as a “corporate partner” on its website, disclosing that the controversial surveillance company had given them between $25,000 (£22,590) and $50,000 (£45,182) in support. Gaggle, which uses artificial intelligence and human content moderators to sift through billions of student chat messages and homework assignments each year in search of students who may harm themselves or others, published a webpage noting the two were collaborating to “improve mental health outcomes for LGBTQ young people”.

Though the precise contours of the partnership remain unclear, a Trevor Project spokesperson said it aims to have a positive influence on the way Gaggle navigates privacy concerns involving LGBTQ+ youth while a Gaggle representative said the company sees the relationship as a learning opportunity.

LGBTQ+ youth are among the most vulnerable to the misuse of this kind of safety monitoring

Both groups maintain that the partnership was forged in the interests of LGBTQ+ students, but student privacy advocates argue the relationship could undermine the Trevor Project’s work while allowing Gaggle to use the relationship to counter criticism about its potential harms to LGBTQ+ students. The collaboration comes at a particularly perilous time for many students as a rash of states implement new anti-LGBTQ+ laws that could erode their privacy and expose them to legal jeopardy.

Teeth Logsdon-Wallace, a 14-year-old student from Minneapolis with first-hand experience of Gaggle’s surveillance dragnet, said the transaction could eliminate any motivation for Gaggle to change its business practices.

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(First they spied on the gays, then…)