By now, I am almost certain that you’ve searched something up, only to be greeted by a green and black screen? GUSD recently installed Lightspeed Filter, the cause of this.  Its goal is to prevent child suicide, an honorable intention. That said, the ways it does this are unhelpful.

Lightspeed reminds me of an old man who doesn’t understand how phones work, except it’s a company that doesn’t understand how kids work

What Is Lightspeed Filter

On Lightspeed’s page for Lightspeed Filter, they say that the filter is “battle-tested.” They claim that “Lightspeed Filter does it better. On every device.” They add that the Chrome extension allows “full decrypted visibility,” meaning that the data is not encrypted, or changed with a secret code. On their website, they have a brochure available, which states that “23 million students’ online activity [is] categorized in real time.” 

Lightspeed Stresses The Fact That They Are An Honest Company. IS THIS TRUE?

The Lightspeed filter collects our data, and quite a bit of it. On their website, they have a COPPA notice. COPPA is a series of laws about data protection that are designed to protect children under 13 years old while they are online. On Lightspeed's COPPA notice, they state that some of the data they can collect includes first and last names, emails, IP addresses, information about parents/guardians, browsing and search histories, and locations of devices if the school chooses to enable it. 

According to their COPPA page, they can use some of our data to “operate, maintain, and provide the features and functionality of the Lightspeed System services, including customer service, support, and billing.” 

While Lightspeed says they will not sell student information to make a profit or targeted ads, they do say they will share personal information with “businesses or third parties Lightspeed Systems is affiliated with in order to facilitate a transaction or service that the School has initiated or requested.”

Since COPPA requires parental consent for data collected from children under 13, “Lightspeed relies on consent obtained from 

the School, acting as an agent of the parent or legal guardian of the School’s students, as permitted by COPPA, for using the Lightspeed Systems.” Now, in that sentence, it is unclear what is acting as an agent of the parent or legal guardian: Lightspeed or the school? If the school acts as the guardian, then what Lightspeed is basically saying is that the parents do not have to actually give consent if the school does. 

The paragraph then goes on to say that “By registering for an account, agreeing to the Terms of Use and other binding agreements, or submitting payment to Lightspeed Systems, the School represented and warranted that it has obtained all consents required under applicable law. The School must keep all consents on file and provide them to us if we request them.” Essentially, it is the school’s job to get consent. Lightspeed allows student data to be deleted through their email, mail, or phone. 

Pros And Cons

Pros - There are many apparent reasons and benefits of the filter. First, there is increased focus. Many students play games, watch Youtube, and/or listen to music in class instead of paying attention to their teacher. With the new filter students no longer have that option and are instead forced to pay attention in class. Second, the filter blocks harmful and inappropriate content that many parents do not want their children to see. Many children go onto fan-fiction websites filled with inappropriate stories. Third, this filter makes it harder for students to do things they are not supposed to do on a district Chromebook. The district wants students to use the Chromebook for school activities not games, Youtube, and music. With the filter students can not do that stuff and are forced to do it on their home devices.

Cons - On the other side, many students have complaints that this agent is blocking more than it should. A popular complaint is the fact that the agent is blocking many images on google. Students want to use these images for google slide presentations and print them out for posters, but because the agent blocks Youtube, all Youtube images are blocked and unusable. Many students also noted that while the filter agent is trying to block students from playing games and using AI, there are still many of these features that are unblocked. This includes google doodle games, Chat GPT, and many other game and AI websites. “It's useless” one student said, while another went into more detail saying that, “The things they banned, people will still find a way to access”. 

On a separate note, a  student noted that, “I've been dependent on my chromebook, and ever 

since the ban came, it makes it a lot harder to find a simple answer”. Some students have even started petitions and protests concerning the banning. Many note Lightspeed Filter  is 

like Go Guardian. Although, one states that, “Go Guardian is enough.”

What's The Deal With The Petition

On the website change.org many have made 

petitions strongly against Lightspeed Filter. One petition titled “Ban Lightspeed Filter Agent in Schools Across the USA,” has around 3.780 signatures. A GUSD specific petition titled “GUSD Remove the Lightspeed Filter Agent”  has around 670 signatures.