Internet filtering And monitoring. All advice and thoughts welcomed!

[ICT_GUY]

All advice welcomed at this point!

We have user based filtering with RM.

We have alerts in place for safeguarding and concerning sites visited.

The head at one school wants to keep an eye on staff usage of the internet for reasons. This under the guise fo Keeping children safe in education. Personally I can't see there being valid reasons for what he is asking, it may even breach GDPR. Though I am guessing that the Key Logging alertng software has stuff in place to protect passwords and sensitive information. Such as SEN leads using wording that is sensitive in corespondance, then a confidential emails is effectively leaked to SLT or myself.

 

It really is a can of worms I am not interested in opening. Other heads have basically tackled this with a robust usage policy and the fact that if a member of staff is using the network illegally we will be alerted.

 

If for example they are shopping during lessons we would not be alerted. Apart from the absudity of a member of staff having time to surf the internet during lessosns, and the rediculous idea that no body would flag this up. Kids are particulary good at keeping those sort of secrets. /s Plus there are always T.A's in class.

 

So what are your thoughts and do you regulalry search through users browsing history, and or use computer monitoring software of the type that screen shots PCs when dodgey stuff is detected? Have you looked into the professional and ethical usage of such software and the legality of it? The main thrust of this is that it would be used on staff as well as students. Where as I would notmaly exspect it only to be used to monitor students.

 

Also this is in a primary not secondary setting.

Edited February 29, 2024 by ICT_GUY

[Aprice]

We use Smoothwall currently across the estate,

 

I believe it is currently enabled for Safeguarding alerts for both staff and students. I suppose it's just the way it's always been setup.

 

That said going through a member of staffs entire search history maybe viewed a bit differently to the odd safeguarding alert.

 

I believe the schools have it in their policies that school devices are monitored for safeguarding reasons. We're external so don't really have to get involved with that side of it, only from a technical advisory side.

Edited February 29, 2024 by Aprice

[TwistedHelixis]

We have automated alerts for both pupils and staff.

The few times the school wanted to go through someones search history, we had to inform that member of staff and have them with us while doing this. I could have also generated a report with all those websites, but the head wanted to be as upfront about this as possible.

Edited February 29, 2024 by TwistedHelixis

[CHiLL]

You shouldn't even need to hide the fact that you're monitoring all devices including staff. If anything, it would come under computer misuse, as they are work property and not personal devices. Our staff are aware that we have filtering and monitoring on the devices, even when they're used at home and they're to be used for work or education purposes only.

 

Our monitoring is done by Smoothwall Monitor and graded by humans, not auto-graded. Severe and/or inappropriate captures are send to our network manager and DSL, regardless of who the user is. W also used Impero for remote control and monitoring/logs, but it's not managed or as accurate as Smoothwall Monitor. If we are requested to bring up logs for a specific users, we will provide that information.

Edited February 29, 2024 by CHiLL

[Oaktech]

We make no bones about the fact that nothing done on a work device, or the work connection, should be considered private.

 

That being said we are also sensitive to the fact that people need to maintain a work-life balance and that sometimes, outside of directed hours, it's necessary to do non-work related things like ordering your shopping, arranging car insurance etc.

[ICT_GUY]

There was something I read about school devices used at home being monitored?

Does anyone do this and how do you do it?

 

The main issue I have at the moment is just to satisfy ofsted that we filter and and monitor enough.

[Oaktech]

There was something I read about school devices used at home being monitored?

Does anyone do this and how do you do it?

 

The main issue I have at the moment is just to satisfy ofsted that we filter and and monitor enough.

 

Yes, we use the Smoothwall cloud filter and every device - Windows & Chromebook is filtered and monitored at all times.

[CHiLL]

There was something I read about school devices used at home being monitored?

Does anyone do this and how do you do it?

 

The main issue I have at the moment is just to satisfy ofsted that we filter and and monitor enough.

We use Smoothwall Monitor, which is always running on the device and sends the captures directly to Smoothwall, instead of to a local/on-site server. We also use our Sophos IPsec VPN, which routes web traffic through or firewall, including it's filtering. With the VPN connected, Impero is also able to establish a connection to our on-site server and monitor/capture devices.