Monitoring Snapchat
A view of the Social Media Analytic Command Center at the ISU School of Communication.
December 3, 2015
Students have recently become more aware of what they are posting on social media and who is monitoring it.
Rumors have spread regarding the monitoring of Snapchat Stories, a closed-network social media. Principal Andrea Markert confirmed she has an unnamed software that can view students’ snapchat stories.
Students have been aware that the administration closely watches Twitter and Facebook posts, but the monitoring of Snapchat is new.
Senior Nolan Simmons has his doubts about actual monitoring capabilities for Snapchat.
“It’s outrageous!” Simmons said, “But, I don’t think it is true.”.
The Social Media Analytic Command Center at ISU monitors local social media for various trends and threats.
Monitoring software can get quite complicated. I visited the Social Media Analytic Command Center at the ISU School of Communication to better understand the programming. Students and faculty use the command center to study social media trends and monitor and filter local social media for issues and threats.
Executive Director Dr. Stephen Hunt believes that it is important for students to learn about the power of social media and the responsibilities that it come with.
“I think we are going to see people become more sensitive to social media,” Hunt said. “It is such a new tool. I think people do some things and post some things and don’t really realize that it is publicly available.”
Markert said that students need to learn that social media is public, and they need to know what to share and what not to share.
“I feel like students think that what they post on social media is private when in reality it’s not private. It is our role to educate them about that and make sure that they have at least heard that what you post on social media can be seen by everyone.”
Markert implemented social media monitoring software three years ago after learning about a social media issue that was affecting the learning environment.
“Mostly it is bullying type of issues that come into school and become a distraction. A lot of times people say things on social media and they don’t intend them. It’s a miscommunication,” Markert said.
Snapchat’s privacy statement presents a challenge for monitoring software which reads: “In many cases the messages sent through our services are automatically deleted from our servers once we detect that they have been viewed or have expired.”
Senior Melody Benyamin questioned her right to privacy regarding the monitoring of Snapchat outside of school.
“It’s basically just a text, and I don’t want her looking through all my texts,” Benyamin said.
Professor Carpenter, the Assistant Director of Convergent Media at ISU, said software can only monitor what is publicly available.
“We cannot see private Twitter accounts, private Facebook posts, private instagram accounts.” Carpenter said, but added, “You almost don’t have privacy when it comes to many of these programs. There is an illusion of that. Even in, let’s say, WhatsApp and Snapchat, there is a complete illusion of privacy.”
Madi Weis • Dec 4, 2015 at 2:53 pm
In my opinion, the idea of monitoring our snap chat feels like an invasion of privacy. I get the point that what we may think is private is actually available for the public but, I personally have all of my accounts on private so that is not the case. Using the school wifi to connect to our accounts just doesn’t sit right with me. Our parents can choose whether monitoring our social media is what they feel is right. Teachers should not extend their rulings to our personal life. Although, I do understand it as a last resort in individual cases in terms of bullying. In other words, if there is a SPECIFIC cause I could see why an investigation is an option but if there is no cause its not right. I advise teachers to spend less time investing research in our personal lives and social media accounts and spend that valuable time improving other aspects of our school that will actually be beneficial.