Million of students return to school this week, many learning primarily online, offering a trove of new data to companies.But what about the apps and the Web sites parents use to keep kids safe?Law professor and Internet privacy expert Leah Plunkett shares her humble opinion on why parents should shy from high-tech surveillance.The other day, my 9-year-old-son tried to convince me that he is ready to walk to school by himself.His pitch: Put one of those smart watches on me, so you will know where I am.My response? No one should be spying on you, including dad and me.When our kids think the best way for them to get more freedom is for us, their parents, to use surveillance technology on them, we are failing them.I'm the mom of two young kids. I'm also a technology researcher and a law professor.With my parent brain, I understand the appeal of tracking our kids.With my professor brain, I understand the risks if we go ahead and do it.We can put a surveillance doorbell system on our front door to see when our kids come and go.We can put a smart watch on them with geofencing that alerts us when they go outside bounds we have set for them.We want to keep our kids safe, but, actually, we're jeopardizing their physical safety.If the technology we're using on them, from smart watches to tracking apps on their phones and beyond,isn't fully secure, their whereabouts could be tracked by people who might want to harm them.
