I was taking a quiz on D2L on Firefox (windows 11) while using ChatGPT to check my answers when all of a sudden my internet cut in and out. It caused my quiz tab to minimize while everything else stayed open. Then the tab said “internet connection restored”.
This has happened twice and both times were during a quiz when I was using ChatGPT.
Is it right to assume that since this is my personal computer then they don’t know what else I have on my desktop?
They had me install the Lockdown browser for at-home proctored exams. It’s a browser that won’t let you switch tasks or even open another program or tab. Idk if it would take screenshots without opening it though but then again all kinds of programs are running in Windows all the time.
Would they do that tho? I mean I don’t know if I’ve heard of someone getting penalized because the school was secretly taking screenshots.
Edit I just realized I sound way too paranoid but it’s an interesting question
Anti-cheat software in either testing or gaming as well as employee productivity monitoring software (which is similar) generally has wide ranging permissions to do its job. So without doing research to confirm, I’d assume it has full access to everything you do across all applications, including when it’s not running in the foreground if it has background services running.
Personally, I never install that stuff on my primary operating system. I either use a dedicated device, dual boot, or if it is less sophisticated, use a virtual machine with only Windows and the necessary software. Of course I don’t use Windows for any personal computers anyway, too inefficient, and these days, too unstable and too much spyware built-in. I only use Windows on my work laptop these days which spys on me constantly to the point of crashing a lot as it collects all of its info when I use development software at the same time as WebEx or other necessary software.
If you want to know details, you need to look at the software they had you install as well as the dependencies it might install.
Can you please elaborate on dependencies part? How to analyze them and how to know which package does exactly what in a quick way? Does one need any coding knowledge? Thank you
It definitely depends on the application. But when you’re installing it, it should yell you if it’s installing other things. Otherwise you’ll have to look at the actual files it installed. There should ne documentation you can read on the site or st least it should have given you a readme to look at when you install it that has the info or links to a website with the info. There also should be a privacy policy in the application or on its site that describes what info it collects and tracks assuming this is from a reputable company. I’m just not familiar with it.
Yeah that’s the point of a lockdown browser bruv
Nope. Not paranoid enough. If school/work requires such software, that goes onto a separate device only for those purposes, which will then be considered untrustworthy environment like any public computer.
Although perhaps in a sense it is paranoid compared to what others do. Recently I’ve had to get something printed without having own printer. I’ve found out people have no problem logging into their Google or Microsoft account on public PCs.
I brought the PDF on a CD.
There’s a certain small chance that something malicious could be written to a USB, and I don’t know about all the possible vulnerabilities. If mounted, perhaps the automatic media thumbnail generator could be exploited. That is probably paranoid, worrying about random software installed on your own computer is certainly not.
Or in a VM if you don’t have any spare devices available. VM escapes exist, but they’re a pretty rare and severe type of vulnerability that’s unlikely to be casually utilised by proctoring software.
With 2FA I probably wouldn’t have too much of a problem with doing this. Especially if I then change password afterwards.
Another option would be to host it somewhere that you can remember the URL. If you don’t care for the privacy of the document itself, just using a URL shortener and Google Drive’s public sharing would work fine, or hosting at your own domain.
Personally though, I’m glad that on the rare occasion I need to get something printed (I have my own black and white laser printer at home for 99% of my needs), my local company for that sort of thing lets you upload it from home and pick up.
Problem is, some of this software may likely be made to specifically not run in a VM, since it is supposed to keep track of everything the student is doing during exams.
Yes, the Lockdown browser can absolutely do that. I had to do something similar for proctored exams, and I set up a second Windows installation, not just for privacy, but to make sure there was absolutely nothing installed or running that might cause the browser to flag me. Those browser report everything they can.
Would they do that? No idea. But could they? Yes, without a doubt. I don’t know that browser in particular, but if you’ve installed some software on your machine, that software can do anything any other software could do.
edit: this page (which seems like it might be from the developers of that browser) indicates it can monitor your screen and restrict your Internet access.