Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Hardware, Odds and ends, Developer, iPhone
Japanese university tracking students via free iPhones
If you happen to be enrolling in Aoyama Gakuin University's School of Social Informatics in Tokyo this year, make sure to stop by the admissions office to pick up your free iPhone -- the school made a deal with Softbank Corporation, the iPhone's vendor in Japan, to give the phones to 550 students for school usage. But oh, there is one catch: they're also going to use the phones' GPS to track students, and make sure they're attending class on time.It looks like skipping class is an issue -- the students at the school, despite having to answer an attendance check and/or hand in an attendance card, are still skipping out on class and having their classmates cover them. But apparently university officials think the iPhone plan will work better, because students will be less inclined, they believe, to pass off their iPhone to a buddy.
Need to keep track of truant students? There is, apparently, an app for that.
[via Ars]
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
colouroflight said 9:56AM on 6-01-2009
How completely unnecessary. It's the same deal as red light cameras - overly intrusive, automatic "enforcement" with no real benefit.
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Sven Gebhardt said 10:16AM on 6-01-2009
So... I read this everywhere else already. No big deal. But.. it's been weeks ago. TUAW is really, really slow nowadays.
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Noah said 10:32AM on 6-01-2009
Every once and a while TUAW will post something new... but I have to agree, I get most of my "iPhone" news from MacRumors or BoyGeniusReport first... and I get most of my app reviews from TouchArcade (games at least).
NoAndThen said 12:50PM on 6-01-2009
Seriously, I first read this at least a week, if not two ago. But I'll say the same thing: why the hell wouldn't you just give your phone to one of your buddies who is going to class that day? Thanks for making cheating attendance easier, big brother!
I would have location services turned off 100% of the time that I'm not supposed to be in class/I would never go to a school like that. No thanks.
umijin said 10:47AM on 6-01-2009
This is old news - reported by Mainichi Daily more than a week ago and was picked up by other tech blogs then. It's also a bunch of nonsense, because it won't work. Students don't have to be in class (they can snooze in the library) for the gps to indicate they are present.
Most Japanese undergraduate students don't care about their grades - they only want a 'pass' because their job opportunities are not correlated with their grades, only their connections and sucking up. So, in order to keep up appearances, some schools think free iPhones will improve attendance that most students care less about.
Fat chance.
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Alexander Maringele said 11:14AM on 6-01-2009
The iPhone does not allow background applications. So how should it work to track students with the iPhone? (You can switch off location services too)
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AlJaMa said 11:22AM on 6-01-2009
I believe they are using my application called "FindMyI" (findmyi.org) We provide a jailbreak application that can run in the background and track your phone. Though we have had no contact from anyone regarding this.
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Noah said 1:11PM on 6-01-2009
You can turn off location services, but the carrier always has the ability to remotely activate the GPS services for emergency reasons. Or if you agree to give the carrier that access -- e.g. AT&T will enable this feature for your account for $10 a month. Track all iPhones your family uses no matter what their settings are...
The only way to get around this is to turn the iPhone "off". No battery means no radio signals are sending/receiving, and no access to the A-GPS chip.
Cheers & thanks for the free iPhone :)
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ryemac3 said 1:19PM on 6-01-2009
Stupid. Continue to skip class with your free iPhone. Continue to use your friend to sign you in. Just make sure you turn the iPhone off when you're not in class. When they say (if they do) that they could not verify that you were in class, you just tell them that you were there, but your battery died.
Kids have been cutting class as long as there has been school. They will always find a way.
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milkmage said 1:47PM on 6-01-2009
You people are not thinking.
Why is attendance so important? Because in Japan, poor attendance means you don’t graduate. This is why the students try to work the system. So why would you turn off location services? YOU WANT TO BE LOCATED SO THE SCHOOL KNOWS YOU’RE IN CLASS. Disabling GPS HURTS your attendance record.
How many of you would give your phone to someone else (even if it were only to record attendance). YOU DON’T WANT A BACKGROUND PROCESS if you’re the school, because you want the students to LOGIN and (probably) run an app that sends your location to the mother ship. I am not giving my screen lock code to anyone. Ever. Period.
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will said 6:44PM on 6-01-2009
this is the beginning of Battle Royale ...
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oakie said 3:52AM on 6-02-2009
TUAW: yesterday's news today!
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John Bailey (BDog) said 8:39AM on 6-18-2009
Wow, is this a violation of your rights! Hello Big Brother! And people still deny the New World Order, even though all of the globalists have been talking about it...
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