The modern classroom has become a laboratory for mass surveillance. We are a collective of students, developers, and privacy advocates dedicated to exposing this reality, explaining the technology, and empowering a generation to reclaim their digital autonomy.
It didn't start as a planned project. It started as a reaction. When the world shut down in 2020, the classroom moved into our homes—and invasive surveillance tools came with it.
As schools transitioned to remote learning during the pandemic, districts scrambled to maintain control. The solution? Mass deployment of monitoring software like GoGuardian and Hapara on school-issued Chromebooks. Suddenly, our personal bedrooms became extensions of the classroom, heavily surveilled 24/7 without our meaningful consent.
"I remember opening up my district Chromebook at 9 PM on a Saturday to watch YouTube, only to realize the green camera light was flickering. They were logging everything. It felt like a massive violation of the one safe space we had left."— a9x, Founder
We realized that millions of students were being monitored, but very few understood how the technology actually worked. The lack of transparency was intentional. We started tearing apart these extensions, documenting their capabilities, and finding workarounds to reclaim our digital autonomy.
"They relied on us not knowing how their black-box software functioned. Once we started publishing exactly what they could see and do, the power dynamics shifted. Knowledge really is the ultimate countermeasure."— newark, Co-Founder
What started as a few frustrated students quickly grew into a community. People from across different districts started contributing findings, blocklists, and raising awareness about the psychological toll of constant algorithmic monitoring.
"Finding hapara.fail was a game changer for me. It wasn't just about blocking a tracking script; it was validating to see I wasn't the only one feeling suffocated by this digital panopticon. We were finally organizing."— Jacket, Community Member
Behind the sanitized rhetoric of "student safety" and "classroom management," a billion-dollar surveillance apparatus operates in the shadows. This is not about keeping students focused; it’s about absolute digital control.
Administrators wield a god-like view of student activity that extends far beyond the physical classroom walls. By using district-issued accounts as a continuous tether, school software can monitor devices 24/7—even at home and on weekends. This total observation creates a profound "chilling effect," conditioning students to self-censor their thoughts and fear exploring sensitive personal or political topics. Your bedroom shouldn't be a laboratory for surveillance experiments.
Opaque AI scans your private communications for keywords. Incapable of understanding nuance or context, these systems trigger frequent false alarms and unwarranted disciplinary actions.
Every click and search is a data point. These behavioral profiles are unregulated commodities that carry long-term consequences for your future "risk" and eligibility scores.
Under the guise of keeping students safe, EdTech giants deploy aggressive web filters that block legitimate educational content and research materials. This digital censorship doesn’t stop threats; it actively hinders curiosity and intellectual growth. By forcing students into a sterile, walled-off internet, schools are failing to prepare them for the messy, open web of the real world. Access to information is the foundation of education, not a luxury to be toggled.
How leading EdTech giants package and sell dystopian surveillance technology as "educational tools."
GoGuardian offers "peace of mind" with powerful filtering and management tools, ensuring students stay "focused and protected."
This "protection" extends to students' homes,monitoring their activity 24/7 on school accounts, completely obliterating the line between school and private life.
Using advanced AI, Gaggle proactively assists schools in preventing bullying and self-harm by scanning student communications.
Their AI has been consistently found toflag searches for LGBTQ+ resources as concerning, potentially outing vulnerable students to unsupportive staff.
Hapara's Highlights feature makes "visible learning" a reality by letting teachers view screens in real-time.
This teaches an entire generation thatevery keystroke is subject to silent review, normalizing a culture of ceaseless surveillance.
Surveillance systems derive their power from being treated as confusing "black boxes." Our primary mission is to break that box wide open. Understanding exactly how your data is collected is the first, most crucial step toward meaningful resistance and digital self-defense.
A mind under constant surveillance cannot be truly free to explore. Genuine learning requires the psychological safety to make mistakes and question authority—things that are impossible in a digital panopticon. We reject the normalization of constant monitoring. Privacy is not a privilege; it is a prerequisite for growth.
This is a call to action. Our transparent approach means all our tools are open-source and our research is public. Whether contributing code, uncovering new trackers, or simply sharing our resources, your involvement strengthens our collective pushback against EdTech overreach.
To earn your trust, we hold ourselves to the highest standards. We are committed to the following principles in everything we do:
Meet the core contributors driving the mission forward.
Founder
With a deep background in network infrastructure and a passion for digital rights, a9x started hapara.fail to challenge the unchecked surveillance he saw as a student. He leads the technical analysis and tool development.
