Securly

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Securly
Securly logo 2020.svg
Type of site
Web filtering for schools
OwnerGolden Gate Capital
Founder(s)Vinay Mahadik, Bharath Madhusudan, Nikita Chikate
URLwww.securly.com
LaunchedJanuary 2013

Securly, Inc. is a privately held American company based in San Jose, California and incorporated in Delaware. It develops and sells internet filters and other technologies for use by primary and secondary educational institutions. Founded in 2013 by Vinay Mahadik, Nikita Chikate and Bharath Madhusudan,[1][2] Securly claims to be the first and only provider of enterprise-level security to schools and the pioneer of the "digital student safety movement".[3]

Securly uses natural language processing and machine learning techniques to monitor students' web browsing, web searches, video watching, social media posts, emails, online documents, and drives.[4]

Securly presenting at the National Student Safety Conference held at Las Vegas, Nevada in November of 2019
Securly presenting at the National Student Safety Conference held at Las Vegas, Nevada in November of 2019.

Products[]

Logo of Securly from 2013 to 2020

Securly primarily acts as a web filter to prevent students from accessing certain websites. It offers K-12 schools tools to monitor and restrict students' internet usage. While its main purpose is to monitor for suspicious activity, it can also be used for classroom management. Securly also features a parent portal, where parents may set up filters for home use in addition to any school filters already in place.

Filter[]

Securly Filter is the primary method of monitoring on student devices. The cloud-based filter works on Chromebooks, iPads, Macs, and Windows-based computers. It provides administrators with records of online activity, generated reports, and notifications for attempts to access flagged content.[5]

Auditor and 24[]

Auditor is a subsystem for G-Suite that uses natural-language processing to detect cyber-bullying and indications of self-harm. This alerts the school counselor and the parents of affected students. In 2019 Auditor was updated to include image scanning of JPG, PNG and GIF files uploaded to Google Drive, combining flesh-tone detection and object recognition with machine learning to provide a nudity-detection service for both downloaded pornography and student selfies.[6]

Tipline[]

Tipline is software that uses human and AI monitoring to identify potential issues. It serves the same essential function as Auditor, but monitors social media, as well as internet usage.

Hub[]

The Securly Hub is a Wi-Fi router that applies the aforementioned features to all devices on a given Wi-Fi network. It has the added ability to pause connections to individual devices.[7]

Leadership team[]

  • Bharath Madhusudan - CEO/Co-Founder[8]
  • Luis Curet - Senior VP of Sales Operations
  • Rich Watson - Senior VP of Customer Success
  • Scott Cohn - Senior VP of Finance
  • Neeraj Thakar - Senior VP of Engineering
  • Anders Johnsson - Senior VP of Global Sales
  • AJ Tedesco - VP of Channel
  • Alpana Thakar - VP of Operations
  • Andy Hethcote - VP of Technical Support & Services
  • Michael Jolley - General Manager, Securly HQ
  • Jarrett Volzer, General Manager, MDM and Classroom Technologies

Controversy[]

Securly has been criticized for providing schools with tools that empower them to censor and invade the privacy of their students. In 2017, the Milwaukee-based Journal Sentinel reported on Securly's implementation at Arrowhead High School, which received pushback from parents and students for its use of service. Points of contention include the risks of Securly falling victim to a hack, the value of students' browsing history and search history to insurance companies and advertisers, and the general discomfort of being digitally micromanaged. An online petition demanding that Arrowhead stop using Securly, which had over 1,300 signatures at the time of the article, has stayed online despite Arrowhead administrators attempting to force students to take it down. The Securly CEO, Bharath Madhusudan, attempted to address these concerns by stating that Securly only monitors social media and only retains data for 6 months.[9]

In a 2021 article for Quartz, journalist Simone Stolzoff emphasized Common Sense Media director Girard Kelly's thoughts on the need to protect students' data in wake of events like the Cambridge Analytica data scandal and the Equifax data breach. Kelly argued that Securly does the opposite by creating a surveillance state where students have to give up their data without their consent.[10]

The Securly extension has an abundance of negative reviews on the Chrome Web Store despite the extension being hidden from normal searches. Many of these reviews appear to be from students, saying the filter is "trash" and "blocks everything". One reviewer claimed that they were unable post a review on the extension while using the filtered device.[11]

Securly is one of many service providers that enable schools to comply with state and federal requirements such as the Children's Internet Protection Act (CIPA).[12] These laws require schools to have adequate digital surveillance in place to protect the students from several online safety concerns including cyberbullying, sexual solicitation, adult content and radicalization. Securly claims that its service allows schools to achieve this legal mandate for surveillance while maintaining a balance between security and privacy.[13]

Securly has also claimed its services help prevent school shootings, but it has been criticized for not providing data that supports this claim.[14][15]

References[]

  1. ^ "About Us - Securly". www.securly.com. Retrieved 2021-06-16.
  2. ^ "Securly Unveils Refreshed Brand Identifying Logo, Logomark & Mascot". PRWeb. Retrieved 2021-07-01.
  3. ^ "About Us". Securly. Retrieved 2021-06-16.
  4. ^ Kolodny, Lora. "Securly raises $4 million to put guard rails on the internet for K-12 students". TechCrunch. Retrieved 2017-10-09.
  5. ^ "Web filtering, student safety, classroom device management". Securly. Retrieved 2020-12-11.
  6. ^ "Securly's Filtering AI Extends to Nudity Detection on Google Docs, Drive & Gmail". Business Insider. Retrieved 2019-02-26.
  7. ^ Kaul, Urvi. "Securly Relaunches the Hub - Safe-Wifi Hotspot for Families". PRWeb. Retrieved 2019-02-23.
  8. ^ "About Us". Securly. Retrieved 2020-12-11.
  9. ^ Johnson, Annysa. "Students, the website you've visited at high school will now be seen by your parents". Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. Retrieved 2021-06-16.
  10. ^ Stolzoff, Simone. "Schools are using AI to track what students write on their computers". Quartz. Retrieved 2021-06-16.
  11. ^ "Securly for Chromebooks". chrome.google.com. Retrieved 2021-06-16.
  12. ^ "Children's Internet Protection Act (CIPA)". Federal Communications Commission. 2011-05-05. Retrieved 2021-07-01.
  13. ^ Brewster, Thomas. "This AI Startup Constantly Monitors Kids To Stop The Next School Shooting—And It Just Scored $16 Million Funding". Forbes. Retrieved 2021-07-01.
  14. ^ "Schools Spy on Kids to Prevent Shootings, But There's No Evidence It Works". Vice. Retrieved 2019-02-24.
  15. ^ Beckett, Lois (2019-10-22). "Under digital surveillance: how American schools spy on millions of kids". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 2020-12-10.

External links[]

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