‘According to a new report from the Kansas City Star, the University of Missouri (MU) has started using an app called SpotterEDU to track students to determine attendance in classes.
Individual professors will choose whether or not to use the app. If they choose to use it, students in those classes will be unable to opt-out and, therefore, forced to install the software on their mobile phones.
The unprecedented Orwellian move requires students to install the app with no option to opt-out of the potential privacy-invasive software. “A student will have to participate in this recording of attendance,” Jim Spain, vice provost for undergraduate studies at MU said in a statement to the Kansas City Star.
SpotterEDU is designed to monitor a user’s attendance by “pinpointing students within a classroom until they leave, providing continuous, reliable and non-invasive attendance,” according to the app’s website. While the app guarantees that students are in the classroom during class times, it claims it does not track the locations of students after hours.
However, the two-star rated app found in the Google Play store that has thus far been reviewed by 35 students, states that the app uses the GPS permission on Android to function with many complaining the app doesn’t even work.
One reviewer, Apple jarjar, wrote the following:
Yeah I haven’t been able to get into this app. I need it for my stupid science class, but it won’t let me get past the turn on location page. My location and Bluetooth is on. The worst app that I haven’t been able to use. There’s a reason it only has 2 stars. Not losing points on attendance because of this bullcrap.’
Read more: University of Missouri Students Will Now Be Required to Install Location Tracking App
