Web Filtering Providers using scare tactics on schools

[blueplanetit]

Hi

 

Just a heads up that certain web filtering providers are using scare tactics or at least their sales people are to push through sales of their web filtering solutions.

 

The sort of things being said are that only their product is compliant or that it is Ofsted approved, all lies.

 

We have just spent some time with a number of schools where we have been able to adapt their existing filtering solutions to be compliant but there are a few that we got too late where the sales people had pushed through the sales with inaccurate or misleading statements.

Edited September 27, 2016 by elsiegee40
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[SchoolsBroadband]

This is pretty bad practise but we've seen it time and time again, normally from the Local Authorities saying things such as "if you leave our broadband provision then the police will be at your door if there's a filtering / safety issue."

 

Complete rubbish of course. Perhaps any filtering company saying such things regarding Ofsted could point each school in the direction of where the safeguarding and requirements are rather than just spout about it on the phone?

 

We sell on giving the customer the correct information so they can make an informed decision. I've no time for scare selling and certainly we'd never do that....

 

Thanks

 

Dave

[mikeprice]

Thanks for the advice - I think my lot would pass anything like that over to me - but it as well to warn them about this sort of thing so they don't panic if some pushy sales person gets through to them

[pete]

Yup, we get these from time to time.

 

Anyone using unethical marketing tactics is excluded from consideration in future projects.

[CapnPugwash]

We use a monitoring solution (takes screenshots of what the students/staff are doing when keywords are triggered) it's OK and isn't that bad a price... but it was pitched to us as 'the only product that ticks all Ofsted boxes for ESafety'

 

I laughed at the time but the teacher who bought into it just started going on about 'Prevent Strategies' in a panicky, weird voice.

 

It was almost like, if we don't buy this software OFSTED WILL SHUT US DOWN!!!!

[mikes]

Our LEA threatens us that if we leave their broadband, we will be in danger as our LEA connection is "encrypted"..

anyone had e-waste companies threaten them with data protection fines?

[SchoolsBroadband]

Our LEA threatens us that if we leave their broadband, we will be in danger as our LEA connection is "encrypted"..

anyone had e-waste companies threaten them with data protection fines?

 

If they are talking about data flowing between their network and a 3rd party ISP (such as ourselves) then data can of course be encrypted by use of IPSEC or SSL VPN's which is common practise and other LA's allow this to happen. Again just scare tactics.

 

LA connections as such are not encrypted. Some adhere to PSN standards although schools don't actually need to be PSN compliant. The LA needs to be PSN compliant if 3rd party user on a different ISP connects into it. If an LA allows remote connections via another ISP (e.g. for home workers) then they can do exactly the same thing for schools to access applications on their LAN such as payroll etc.

 

Dave

 

Dave

[Blue_Cookeh]

Our own LEA was trying to scare us into staying with them before we moved to SB. Trying to scare us with the pricing of AVCO and all the other rubbish they bundled with it we didn't actually use...

 

Tbh we were more scared by their shoddy support and bad uptime.

 

Of course, AVCO is SSL so heh.

 

The thing that irks me is a lot of Primaries probably buy into it because they don't know better or don't have IT support that could inform them properly.

Edited September 5, 2016 by Blue_Cookeh

[blueplanetit]

 

The thing that irks me is a lot of Primaries probably buy into it because they don't know better or don't have IT support that could inform them properly.

 

I think you hit the nail on the head there. That was my experience with a cluster of schools, the local college was trying to get them all to go for the same deal and really bullying them into a decision saying that they had no choice when in reality they did have a choice, about 50% of the cluster said no to the college deal and have been enjoying fast speeds, flexible filtering for a number of years now without issue at about half the cost of the college deal.

 

It's sad but in the last few years I have been working with schools and charities around Oxfordshire and they often get bad advice and over charged for it.

[mikeprice]

Yup - I had to decide on a new LEA filter/broadband deal when I first started here - there was so many things I needs to sort out that I didn't have time to sort out the options and check thing sout - beyond that the uptime had been close to 100% recently

So I was forced to sign it off due to circumstances - speed is fine and the filtering is Ok too - but we could do better for cheaper if I had had time to look for options!

[IrritableTech]

Anyone with questions over the new guidance would do well to read Rebecca Avery's ( @esafety_officer ) blog post: https://kentesafety.wordpress.com/2016/06/06/online-safety-within-keeping-children-safe-in-education-2016/

 

It should dispel any myths that unscrupulous companies may use to their advantage.

Edited September 5, 2016 by IrritableTech

[blueplanetit]

Good read, thanks for the link.

[Oaktech]

When I issued our old ISP with notice to quit (If you've been here a while, you'll know who it was) within 20 minutes a salesman was on the phone trying to speak to the head. When the reception lady told the guy he could be passed to me or he could off he gave her some scary pitch about how what we were doing was possibly illegal and how we would immediately be hacked and that did we want to deliberately put our kids in danger and, and and... Took me about an hour to calm her down and she's the receptionist, goodness only knows what might of happened if he'd got through to someone with decision making powers.

[blueplanetit]

That's the sort of thing that really hacks me off, people are in business to make money, I understand that but it doesn't mean that anything goes. We went into one school that specialises in caring for autistic children, a large IT provider went in over sold to them, spent a huge amount of their money and then didn't finish the job, I struggle to understand how people can walk round a school like that and only be focused on closing a deal, but hey maybe that's just me. Glad you got a handle on the issue and no long term damage was done.