FlyerTalk Forums - TSA Program Mentioned in Article about On-Line Education

From a 4/6/15 New York Times article about proctoring on-line education:

Quote:

Tim Dutta, Verificient’s chief executive, said his company’s chief technology officer came up with the idea for [Proctortrack] after he worked on a project for the Transportation Security Administration which involved scanning airport security video footage for abnormal facial expressions. Proctortrack uses algorithms to detect unusual student behavior — like talking to someone off-screen — that could constitute cheating. Then it categorizes each student as having high or low “integrity.”

...

Jeffrey Alan Johnson, assistant director of institutional effectiveness and planning at Utah Valley University, compared Proctortrack’s approach to a controversial T.S.A. airport security screening program intended to identify terrorists; the government’s list of suspicious behavior included gazing down and excessive yawning, according to a document obtained by The Intercept.

“We are seeing similar things with Proctortrack,” said Mr. Johnson, who has conducted research on information technologies and social justice. “It’s built on this belief that human behavior can be reduced to an algorithm and, if you deviate from that behavior, it’s a problem.”

I didn't realize that the BDOs were studying video (or letting computers do so for them). Is this video from the checkpoints or all around the airport? Is it a real-time assessment?

The way the article describes how Proctortrack works absolutely sounds TSA-inspired. Trusted Traveler-->Trusted Student. Normal behavior-->Anomaly. Pay TSA $85 to be treated like a human-->Pay the university $40/exam to be treated like a human. Etc.

The Utah Valley University "Stoplight" program mentioned in the article looks revolting. Profiling, anyone? It includes an on-line monitoring component, too (per a linked article). If you aren't making Facebook friends, you might be planning to drop out! TSA made some noise about on-line monitoring of PreCheck enrollees via social media and other sources; I could absolutely see TSA deciding that someone who doesn't make Facebook friends is withdrawing from society and is therefore more likely to be a terrorist.