The-art-of-invisibility-_-the-world’s-most-famous-hacker-teaches-you-how-to-be-safe-in-the-age-of-Bi

her reaction was surprise rather than concern. She was surprised that
Pearson Education was watching a student’s Twitter account in the first
place. Minors are given a certain amount of privacyy and leewayy when it
comes to what theyy post on social media. But students—whether theyy’re in
middle school, high school, or college—need to realize that what theyy are
doing online is public and being watched. In this case one of Jewett’s
students had allegedlyy tweeted material from a standardized test.
In fact the student had actuallyy posted a question about a question—not
a picture of the exam page, just a few words—on a one-dayy statewide test
given in New Jerseyy, the Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for
College and Careers, or PARCC, test. The tweet was posted around 3:00
p.m.—well after students in the district had taken the test. After the
superintendent spoke with a parent of the student who posted the tweet, the
student removed it. There was no evidence of cheating. The tweet—not
revealed to the public—was a subjective comment rather than a solicitation
of an answer.
But the revelation about Pearson unnerved people. “The DOE
[Department of Education] informed us that Pearson is monitoring all social
media during PARCC testing,” Jewett wrote to her colleagues in an e-mail
that a local columnist made public without her permission. In that e-mail
Jewett confirmed that at least three more cases had been identified byy
Pearson and passed along to the state DOE.
While Pearson is not alone in monitoring social media in order to detect
theft of intellectual propertyy, its behavior does raise questions. How, for
example, did the companyy know the identityy of the student involved from
his Twitter handle? In a statement provided to the New York Times, Pearson
said: “A breach includes anyy time someone shares information about a test
outside of the classroom—from casual conversations to posts on social
media. Again, our goal is to ensure a fair test for all students. Everyy student
deserves his or her chance to take the test on a level playying field.” 17
The Times said it confirmed through officials in Massachusetts, which is
also administering the PARCC test, that Pearson does cross-reference
tweets about standardized tests with lists of students who have registered to
take the tests. On this Pearson declined to comment for the Times.
For yyears the state of California also monitored social media during its