FARO stands for Frontline Record of Online Harms. Technology-related harm usually reaches the public one case at a time: a school in one country, a family in another, each easy to treat as an exception. This directory puts those cases side by side to help grassroots actors see where others face the same issues they do, and to help governments and regulators see the bigger picture of the harms occurring. The directory describes what its records contain. It does not measure how often these harms occur, and a country with few records may simply have little published about it.
How to use this directory: Topics are filterable for FARO reports that have already been created based on these incidents. The harms and response patterns shown are those featured there. To see the incidents used in a country-specific report, choose that country under Country report. Pick a pattern or evidence type to see on the map which countries have matching records. Click a country on the map or in the list to see its records below. Use the filter to search for keywords or specific sources.
Shaded countries have at least one record. Choose a pattern to see where it appears.
At least one matching recordNo matching recordSelected country
Shading shows only that a country has at least one record in this directory that matches your selection, and every shaded country looks the same on purpose. It says nothing about how often these harms occur there. Pattern filters only cover records classified so far, and small countries are easy to miss on a map, so use the list as well.
Strict School Internet Filters Block Student Academic Research
A 16-year-old female student was prevented from completing academic research because of overly restrictive internet filters on her school-issued computer. The strict filters, which were implemented by her school district in response to anti-technology backlash, blocked her from accessing appropriate educational information on topics such as breast cancer.
Student Barred from Graduation and Threatened Over Social Media Post
A female student was barred from graduation and threatened regarding her diploma by her school after she made a post on a social media platform coming out as gay. The school had monitored and acted upon her off-campus expression, leading to a legal dispute over the violation of her digital privacy.
Student embarrassed after surveillance software flagged private suicide-related document
A student in Washington state, United States was flagged after writing a private suicide-related document. Adults intervened after the software alert. The student reported embarrassment and discomfort from private writings being read by unintended readers and stated the embarrassment lasted for years. This is a personal interview. Source available to SHIELD.
Student experiences daily headaches after school-year use of school-issued laptop
A student experienced daily, intense headaches after a school year of using and transporting a school-issued laptop for her education. As a result of these persistent physical symptoms and a perceived lack of academic benefit, her parent decided to opt her out of using the school's computer and digital curricula for the subsequent school year.
Student secretly monitored through remotely activated school webcam
A teacher remotely activated a student's webcam and observed the student while sleeping and partially undressed. The consequence was a significant invasion of privacy. This is a personal interview. Source available to SHIELD.
Student’s Private Cell Phone Confiscated and Searched by School District
A school district confiscated and searched a student's personal cell phone, exposing extensive private data, texts, photos, and location history. The student's family filed a legal action, and the school district ultimately paid a financial settlement for exceeding reasonable search limits.
Students forced to grant access to personal social media accounts
School officials required students to grant access to their personal social media accounts during investigations. This practice violated the students' digital privacy rights and restricted their off-campus freedom of speech.
Students in Kansas Subjected to Prior Restraint and False Flags by School Surveillance Software
Nine current and former high school students, including student journalists in Kansas, United States, were subjected to round-the-clock digital surveillance on their accounts and devices by their school district using Gaggle software. The monitoring software allowed school administrators to monitor unpublished journalistic work, caused student files to disappear without explanation, and falsely flagged student artwork as child pornography, causing distress and confusion. In response to these privacy violations and restrictions on free expression, the students filed a federal lawsuit against school officials.
Students questioned by law enforcement after school monitoring software alerts
In a school district in California, United States, students using school-issued devices for homework research or playing video games were flagged by online monitoring software. School staff involved law enforcement rather than addressing the alerts directly with the students. The students, who are minors, were questioned by police and reported feeling traumatized, criminalized, and distrustful of school staff afterward. This is a personal interview. Source available to SHIELD.
Texas college student forced to purchase burner phone due to mandatory proprietary 2FA app
A college student in Texas was required by their school to use a proprietary two-factor authentication application, OneLogin Protect, on their personal device to access school systems. Because the app blocked access on jailbroken devices and virtual machines, the student was unable to use their existing hardware. To bypass the restriction and log into their school portal, the student was forced to spend forty dollars out of pocket to purchase a cheap burner phone.
Texas School District – topless images reported on school iPad program
According to a citation collected by an educational technology legal advocacy group, parents in a school district in Texas raised concerns in 2019 after topless images were reportedly accessible through the district's school-issued iPad program.
Texas students exposed to privacy risks through inadequately protected remote learning system
An algebra teacher in Dallas, Texas, told HRW that her school district initially did not put privacy protections in place, and that teachers were using an online platform she said has no privacy protection. She said 60 to 70 percent of her students had a primary family member who had been deported or was in immigration detention, and called it a dangerous situation for those students.
Texas, USA – recorded child sexual abuse on school tablet
A six-year-old student at an elementary school in Texas, USA was sexually assaulted by classmates during a class period, with the incident recorded on a school-issued tablet; a school technology staff member discovered the recording while reviewing a device. The FBI opened an investigation, and the family has publicly stated the school's disciplinary and communication response was inadequate.
Unauthorized Interception of Student Communications on the Naviance Platform
A minor student, along with other student users of the Naviance educational platform, had their confidential and sensitive communications intercepted without consent by integrated third-party analytics and advertising software. This non-consensual tracking and invasion of student privacy led to a class-action lawsuit and subsequent $17.25 million court-supervised settlement.
Source: United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois
Unconsented student data collection via school iPads
School officials provided students with iPads pre-installed with content tracking and blocking software that was not fully tested. The software compromised the students' digital privacy by collecting their personal information without consent, putting their data at risk.
University Student Subjected to Unconstitutional Webcam Room Scan
A university required a student to perform a 360-degree webcam scan of his private room before taking a remote exam. The student challenged the requirement, and a federal court ruled that the compelled scan of his home was an unconstitutional search under the Fourth Amendment.
Washington State Parent Sues Educational Technology Provider Over Unauthorized Student Data Tracking and Sale
A parent in Washington State and her school-aged children had their sensitive educational, medical, and behavioral data collected, tracked, and commercialized without parental consent through mandatory school software. The data was allegedly sold to over 100 third-party commercial partners to predict and profit from the children's future trajectories. The parent filed a class-action lawsuit against the platform operator, and a federal judge subsequently ruled that their privacy and unjust enrichment claims could proceed.
Wisconsin, USA – kindergartener accesses explicit content on school-issued device at home
A mother reported that her 5-year-old child accessed a pornography website and other inappropriate content on a school-issued device at home, after the school district in Wisconsin, USA, acknowledged the device's content filter was not properly deployed outside the school network for roughly two months. The mother raised the issue during a public school board meeting, and the district disputed some details of her account while confirming the filter gap existed. The district said the gap was fixed within hours of discovery but was not proactively disclosed to all affected families. This case involves an explicit dispute between the parent's account and the district's internal review findings.
Source: The Ohio Star / Daily Caller News Foundation
Each record is a short summary of an incident described in a public source or collected through an interview by SHIELD or its partners. Records are reviewed by people before they appear here. Names and identifying details are removed: where a person appears, a role, age band and gender stand in for the name, and dates and places for minors are generalised. Every record links to its original source and shows the date that link was last checked. Records are classified with shared harm categories. The classification is SHIELD's own, so it can differ from how a source describes the incident.
Using the directory
You are welcome to read, link to and quote individual records with credit to FARO. Please do not copy, scrape or republish the dataset in bulk, or use it to train or test automated systems, without written permission. To ask for permission, use the SHIELD contact form. The original sources keep their own rights, and the link on each record leads to them.
How to cite
SHIELD-APS. Frontline Record of Online Harms (FARO). DIRECTORY-URL. Accessed [date]. To cite a particular selection, use the web address shown after you set the filters.
When you rely on the facts of an incident, cite the original source it links to. When you rely on the classification, the patterns or the country report, cite FARO. Please describe the records as documented incidents and do not present counts or country coverage as how often these harms happen. A country with few records may simply have little published about it.
Corrections and removals
If a record is wrong, a link no longer works, or you are described in a record and want it changed or removed, use the SHIELD contact form and include the title of the record. We review each request and update or remove the record where the request is justified.
Report an incident
Know of a documented incident that belongs here? Send it through the incident form. A public source, such as a news report, a court or regulator decision, or a research publication, helps us verify it quickly. Submissions without a public source are kept anonymous and are not tied to named products or companies. Please leave out the names of children and of anyone who has not agreed to be named. Submissions are reviewed before anything is published, and sending one does not guarantee a record.
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To provide the best experiences, we use technologies like cookies to store and/or access device information. Consenting to these technologies will allow us to process data such as browsing behavior or unique IDs on this site. Not consenting or withdrawing consent, may adversely affect certain features and functions.
Functional
Always active
The technical storage or access is strictly necessary for the legitimate purpose of enabling the use of a specific service explicitly requested by the subscriber or user, or for the sole purpose of carrying out the transmission of a communication over an electronic communications network.
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Statistics
The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for statistical purposes.The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for anonymous statistical purposes. Without a subpoena, voluntary compliance on the part of your Internet Service Provider, or additional records from a third party, information stored or retrieved for this purpose alone cannot usually be used to identify you.
Marketing
The technical storage or access is required to create user profiles to send advertising, or to track the user on a website or across several websites for similar marketing purposes.
