Securly

Securly, Inc. is a venture-backed[1] student safety and device management software provider headquartered in Silicon Valley. Securly was founded in January 2013 by Vinay Mahadlk,[2] Bharath Madhusudan,[3] and Nikita Chikate.[4] It was incorporated in California on July 19, 2013.[5] In March 2019, Securly expanded to cover classroom and device management.[6]

Securly
Type of site
Web filtering for schools
OwnerVinay Mahadik, Bharath Madhusudan, Nikita Chikate
URLwww.securly.com
LaunchedJanuary 2013

Securly uses natural language processing and machine learning techniques to monitor students' web browsing, web searches, video watching, social media posts, emails, online documents and drives.[7]

Securly presenting at the National Student Safety Conference held at Las Vegas, Nevada in November of 2019.

Features

Securly primarily acts as a web filter to prevent students from accessing certain websites. It offers K-12 schools tools to monitor and restrict students' internet usage. While the main purpose is to monitor for suspicious activity, it can also be used for classroom management. Securly also features a parent portal, where parents may set up filters for home use in adition to any school filters already in place.

Filter

Securly Filter is the primary method of monitoring on student devices. The cloud-based filter works on Chromebooks, iPads, Macs, and Windows-based computers. It provides administrators with records of online activity, generated reports, and notifications for attempts to access flagged content.[8] The filter uses machine learning algorithms to detect and block content on devices. Geofencing can be used to change the filter depending on whether or not the device is on school campus.

Auditor and 24

Auditor is a subsystem for G-Suite that uses natural-language processing to detect cyber-bullying and indications of self-harm. This alerts the school counselor and the parents of affected students.

As of 2019, Auditor was updated to include image scanning of JPG, PNG and GIF files uploaded to Google Drive, combining flesh-tone detection and object recognition with machine learning to provide a nudity-detection service for both downloaded pornography and student selfies.[9]

Parent Portal

The Securly Parent Portal allows users to view what students or children are accessing online. It is available as a standalone app on iOS and Android.

Tipline

Tipline is software that uses human and AI monitoring to identify potential issues. It serves the same essential function as Auditor, but monitors social media, as well as internet usage.

Hub

The Securly Hub is a Wi-Fi router that applies the aforementioned features to all devices on a given Wi-Fi network. It has the added ability to pause connections to individual devices.[10]

Leadership team
  • Bharath Madhusudan - CEO/Co-Founder[11]
  • Luis Curet - Senior VP of Sales Operations
  • Rich Watson - Senior VP of Customer Success
  • Scott Cohn - Senior VP of Finance
  • Neeraj Thakar - Senior VP of Engineering
  • Anders Johnsson - Senior VP of Global Sales
  • AJ Tedesco - VP of Channel
  • Alpana Thakar - VP of Operations
  • Andy Hethcote - VP of Technical Support & Services
  • Michael Jolley - General Manager, Securly HQ
  • Jarrett Volzer, General Manager, MDM and Classroom Technologies

Controversy

Securly has claimed its services help to prevent school shootings, but it has been criticized for not providing data that supports this claim.[12][13]

Organizations such as the American Civil Liberties Union allege that Securly impedes on Privacy Rights in schools.[14][15] Some criticism stems from the belief that Securly is shifting focus from the students' issues, discouraging counseling, and imposing censorship on students in the name of conforming to rules.

References
  1. Brewster, Thomas. "This AI Startup Constantly Monitors Kids To Stop The Next School Shooting—And It Just Scored $16 Million Funding". Forbes. Retrieved 2020-06-28.
  2. "Vinay Mahadik - co-founder/CEO of Securly, Inc". LinkedIn.
  3. "Bharath Madhusudan - co-founder/CRO of Securly, Inc". LinkedIn.
  4. "Nikita Chikate, co-founder/CDO of Securly". LinkedIn.
  5. "| California Secretary of State". businesssearch.sos.ca.gov. Retrieved 2020-12-10.
  6. "Education Technology Leader Securly Acquires TechPilot Labs to Deliver the First End-to-End Solution for Enhancing the Digital Student Experience". Business Wire. 2019-03-11. Retrieved 2020-12-10.
  7. Kolodny, Lora. "Securly raises $4 million to put guard rails on the internet for K-12 students". TechCrunch. Retrieved 2017-10-09.
  8. "Web filtering, student safety, classroom device management". Securly. Retrieved 2020-12-11.
  9. "Securly's Filtering AI Extends to Nudity Detection on Google Docs, Drive & Gmail". Business Insider. Retrieved 2019-02-26.
  10. Kaul, Urvi. "Securly Relaunches the Hub - Safe-Wifi Hotspot for Families". PRWeb. Retrieved 2019-02-23.
  11. "About Us". Securly. Retrieved 2020-12-11.
  12. "Schools Spy on Kids to Prevent Shootings, But There's No Evidence It Works". Vice. Retrieved 2019-02-24.
  13. Beckett, Lois (2019-10-22). "Under digital surveillance: how American schools spy on millions of kids". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 2020-12-10.
  14. Duffy, Erin (2018-08-05). "Some Nebraska schools are digitally surveilling students for signs of self-harm, violence and more". Omaha.com. Retrieved 2019-02-24.
  15. Fulton, Sandra (2011-05-24). "Students Have Privacy Rights, Too". American Civil Liberties Union. Retrieved 2019-02-24.
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