Though much has been written regarding the benefits and dangers posed by data surveillance, the measure recently put out by Oral Roberts University to fully integrate their physical fitness curriculum with wearable technology can seem like an attractive prospect at first. Certainly, the convenience of the whole matter plays a significant role in making this change an attractive one to both current and incoming students. Specifically, the students will be able to track their aerobics points and fitness through the wearable watches, and these points will instantly enter into their fitness journal, an integral part of the Whole Person Education program (ORU News, 2019). The greater issue at hand here is the increasing influence of private entities into public areas, especially the realm of education. While it should be noted that Oral Roberts University, or ORU, is a private campus, partnerships with corporations like Fitbit might soon involve public universities as well.

By giving a private entity access to large numbers of data regarding students, there is technically nothing stopping them from taking said data and using it for their own means, even without permission. The right to privacy is slowly being encroached upon for the sake of expediency. Unfortunately, this has been the greater narrative of ideas like data surveillance, where groups of people are more willing to give away information that they consider as unimportant or non-critical in exchange for services and benefits. The problem is that these people seem to be unaware of the intrinsic value of the data that they give away.

Culture and daily living is becoming more digital, that is, we integrated machines and smart technologies to make things faster, smarter, and more precise. At first, it may start with using Fitbit to track fitness metrics, and later on, they might begin integrating smart watches to keep track of student schedules and student grades. At its possible worst, this may even result in using such watches to keep track of where students are on campus at any time in an attempt to check if they have been attending their courses. The more we, as a whole, become connected to the “internet of things”, the more we allow the corporations who own the access to the internet to see our interests and our lifestyles to make money out of us in one way or another. The question then, is how long until we realize that it’s becoming a detriment to humanity as a whole.

Source:

ORU News (2019). Oral Roberts University integrates wearable technology with physical fitness curriculum for incoming students. Oral Roberts University. Retrieved from http://www.oru.edu/news/oru_news/20160104_fitbit_tracking.php