Technology

NYC schools track bathroom time with digital hall passes

Published

3 days ago

April 4, 2026

Press Room

NYC schools track bathroom time with digital hall passes

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Leaving class for a quick bathroom break now comes with a timer for many students in New York City.

A digital hall pass system called SmartPass is rolling out across public schools. It replaces the old paper pass with a digital one. Students sign out on a classroom iPad. Then the system tracks how long they are gone.

On paper, it sounds efficient. In practice, it is stirring strong reactions.

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New York City students now use SmartPass, a digital hall pass system that tracks when they leave class, where they go and how long they are gone. (Alejandra Villa Loarca/Newsday RM via Getty Images)

How the SmartPass digital hall pass works

SmartPass logs when a student leaves class and tracks how long they are out and where they go. Teachers can view that information in real time, which gives them a live snapshot of student movement during the school day. SmartPass says the system is designed to improve safety, reduce disruptions and give staff better visibility into student movement.

The system keeps a running total of time spent outside the classroom. It can also limit how many students are allowed in the hallway at once. In some cases, it can flag or block overlapping passes between students. Schools can also restrict when passes are allowed, depending on the schedule or specific rules set by staff.

Supporters say this helps reduce disruptions and keeps students accountable. They also argue it improves safety during emergencies because staff can quickly see who is out of class. However, that is only one side of the story.

Students say SmartPass feels like surveillance

Many students are not buying the “efficiency” argument. Some say the system makes them feel rushed during basic needs. Others worry about being constantly monitored.

One student described it as uncomfortable, like someone is always watching. Another said it turns something simple into a stressful countdown.

There are also reports of strict time limits. In some cases, students say teachers set very short timers for bathroom use. That can create awkward situations fast.

And then there are loopholes. Students have figured out ways to sign out under someone else’s name. That can block another student from leaving class at all.

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A digital hall pass system in New York City schools is raising questions about privacy, student trust and whether tracking tools belong in everyday school life. (Melina Mara/The Washington Post via Getty Images)

SmartPass raises growing privacy concerns

Privacy advocates are raising bigger concerns. Critics say tools like SmartPass go too far.

“Hyper invasive, error-prone AI surveillance technologies have no place in school bathrooms,” said Charlotte Pope, Equal Justice Works Fellow at the NYCLU. “Third-party surveillance products, like the electronic hall passes, put students’ sensitive, personal data at the whims of for-profit corporations, unnecessarily put even more punitive discipline into students’ lives, and add more fuel to the school-to-prison pipeline. For generations, students went to the bathroom without big brother watching just fine – the difference is that now, companies are making money off it.”

The fear is not only about today. It is about what happens to that data later. School officials say the system meets strict privacy rules. They also say schools are not required to use it. Still, critics argue that once data is collected, the risk never fully disappears.

How much NYC is spending on SmartPass

There is also a financial angle. New York City reportedly spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on SmartPass contracts in recent years. That breaks down to a few thousand dollars per school.

At the same time, the city faces major budget gaps. That raises a fair question. Should schools invest in tracking tools or focus on staffing and facilities? Students are asking that question too.

Why this conversation is not going away

Technology in schools is not new. But the level of tracking is changing. What used to be a simple hall pass is now a data point. Multiply that across a school day, and you start to see a pattern forming.

Some people see that as progress. Others see it as overreach. Either way, tools like SmartPass are likely just the beginning.

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SmartPass is rolling out in New York City public schools, replacing paper hall passes with a digital system that logs student movement in real time. (Deb Cohn-Orbach/UCG/Universal Images Group via Getty Images)

What this means to you

Even if you are not a student in New York, this trend still matters. Digital monitoring tools are becoming part of everyday life. You can now find them in schools, workplaces and public spaces.

As a result, data collection is starting to feel normal in places where it never used to exist. Even simple systems can build detailed profiles over time. That information can reveal patterns about behavior without people realizing it.

At the same time, convenience often comes with tradeoffs. Tools that make things easier can also reduce privacy. Once these systems are in place, they rarely stay limited. They tend to expand and track more over time.

If you have kids, it is worth asking how their school collects and stores data. If you are a student, you have a right to understand what is being tracked and why it matters.

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Kurt’s key takeaways

There is a real balance to strike here. Schools want safety and structure. Students want trust and privacy. Those goals do not always line up. SmartPass sits right in the middle of that tension. It promises control and visibility. It also raises questions about how much monitoring is too much. The bigger issue may not be this one system. It is the direction things are heading.

If tracking tools become standard in schools, where should the line be drawn between safety and personal space? Let us know by writing to us at Cyberguy.com.

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Kurt “CyberGuy” Knutsson is an award-winning tech journalist who has a deep love of technology, gear and gadgets that make life better with his contributions for Fox News & FOX Business beginning mornings on “FOX & Friends.” Got a tech question? Get Kurt’s free CyberGuy Newsletter, share your voice, a story idea or comment at CyberGuy.com.

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Technology

Wisconsin governor says ‘no’ to age checks for porn

Published

4 hours ago

April 6, 2026

Press Room

Wisconsin governor says ‘no’ to age checks for porn

Wisconsin Governor Tony Evers vetoed a bill that would’ve required residents to verify their age before accessing porn sites, as reported earlier by 404 Media. In a letter to the members of the assembly last week, Evers writes that the bill “imposes an intrusive burden on adults who are trying to access constitutionally protected materials.”

The bill (AB 105) would’ve required sites with more than one-third of their total content deemed harmful to minors to impose a “reasonable” form of age verification, such as asking users to show their government-issued ID. More than two dozen states have already passed similar age check requirements for access to adult content, including Arizona, Florida, Georgia, Missouri, Texas, and Virginia. As a result, Pornhub has blocked its site in these locations.

Last month, the Wisconsin American Civil Liberties Union testified that AB-105 “raises significant concerns around privacy, surveillance, and the First Amendment,” and it seems like Governor Evers agreed. “I am vetoing this bill in its entirety because I object to this bill’s intrusion into the personal privacy of Wisconsin residents,” Evers writes, adding that he’s “concerned about data security and the potential for misuse of personally identifiable information” obtained as a result of the age verification process.

An early version of Wisconsin’s age verification bill also included a ban on virtual private networks (VPN), which people have been using to circumvent online age checks. Lawmakers dropped this provision in February, though VPNs are becoming a target for regulators around the globe.

Despite vetoing this bill, Evers is leaving the door open for other kinds of age verification solutions, such as “device-based” methods that would verify the age of users on their phone or computer.

Technology

Amazon job text scam warning signs

Published

4 hours ago

April 6, 2026

Press Room

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You get a text message. It says Amazon is hiring. The pay sounds great. The work is easy. It feels like a lucky break. Then you read it again. That is when things start to feel off, and you realize it could be a scam. Let’s break down the exact text message scammers are sending and call out every red flag so you know what to watch for next time.

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A text claiming Amazon is hiring may look convincing at first, but generic wording, unrealistic pay and a missing hiring process are major scam red flags. (Miguel J. Rodriguez Carrillo/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

The biggest red flags in this Amazon job text

Here is what stands out right away in this message.

1) It starts with a generic greeting

The message opens with “Hi” and does not include your name. Legitimate recruiters usually personalize outreach, especially for a job opportunity. A generic greeting suggests this message was sent to many people at once.

2) You did not apply for this job

The message shows up out of nowhere, which should immediately raise concern. In this case, there was no application submitted and no prior contact with a recruiter. Because of that, the outreach feels unexpected and unverified. Legitimate companies do not randomly text people with job offers, especially without any previous interaction.

3) The sender does not match the company

The message comes from a random Hotmail email address, not an official Amazon domain. Real recruiters from Amazon use corporate email accounts tied to Amazon. They do not text you from a generic email or personal number. That alone should stop you in your tracks.

4) The job offer is vague

The role description sounds broad and generic. “Supporting Amazon sellers” and “online tasks” could mean anything. There are no clear responsibilities, no team, no department. Scammers keep things vague on purpose. It helps them reach more people.

5) The pay makes no sense

The message promises $100 to $600 per day for about an hour of work. That is not how legitimate jobs work. When you see high pay for very little effort, that is often bait designed to pull you in fast.

6) The numbers do not add up

It mentions a base pay of $1,000 for every four working days. That conflicts with the daily rate listed earlier. Inconsistent details are a common scam signal. Real job offers are clear and consistent.

7) They push you to respond quickly

The message asks you to text “Interested” to a phone number instead of applying through a formal process. There is no application, no interview and no verification. Because of that, the urgency is intentional and designed to get a fast response before you have time to think it through.

8) The phone number looks unusual or international

The message tells you to text a number like +14482009251. At first glance, it may look like a U.S. number because of the +1 country code. But scammers often use internet-based numbers that can be routed from anywhere. Legitimate recruiters rarely ask you to move a job conversation to a random phone number. If the number feels off, trust that instinct.

9) The age requirement is unusual

It says, “If you are 25 or older.” That is not a standard hiring requirement for most roles. Random restrictions like this are another sign that something is off.

10) No official hiring process

There is no mention of:

A job listing
A company’s careers page
A recruiter profile
An interview

Legitimate companies follow structured hiring steps. They do not skip straight to texting.

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Job scammers are now targeting phones with fake Amazon recruiting texts that promise easy remote work and fast money. (Michael Nagle/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

Why this scam works so well

These messages hit a sweet spot for many people. They promise flexible work while also offering remote roles and quick income. As a result, that combination is hard to ignore, especially if you are job hunting. Because of this, scammers design messages that feel like an opportunity rather than a risk.

What this means to you

You are likely to see more messages like this. Job scams have moved from email to text because people respond faster on their phones. That means you need to slow down and question anything that feels too easy or too good. A real opportunity will still be there tomorrow. A scam depends on speed.

We reached out to Amazon about this text message scam, and a spokesperson told us:

“Scammers that attempt to impersonate Amazon put consumers at risk. We will continue to invest in protecting consumers and educating the public on scam avoidance. We encourage consumers to report suspected scams to us so that we can protect their accounts and refer bad actors to law enforcement to help keep consumers safe.”

Ways to stay safe from job text scams

Start with a quick gut check. Then take these steps.

1) Verify the company directly

Go to the official website of Amazon and check their careers page. If the job is real, it will be listed there.

2) Do not respond to unknown job texts

Instead, ignore the message completely. Do not text back, click any links or call the number. Even a quick reply can confirm your number is active, which may lead to more scam attempts.

3) Remove your data from broker sites

Scammers often find your number through data broker websites that collect and sell personal information. Using a trusted data removal service can help reduce your exposure by removing your information from hundreds of these sites and lowering the chances of being targeted. Check out my top picks for data removal services and get a free scan to find out if your personal information is already out on the web by visiting Cyberguy.com

4) Use strong antivirus protection

If a scam message leads you to a link, your device could be exposed. Strong antivirus software helps block malicious downloads before they cause harm. Get my picks for the best 2026 antivirus protection winners for your Windows, Mac, Android & iOS devices at Cyberguy.com

5) Watch for unrealistic pay

High pay for minimal work is one of the biggest warning signs. If it sounds easy, assume there is a catch.

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If a text promises Amazon work with high pay for little effort, treat it as suspicious and verify the job through official channels. (Jim Young/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

6) Check the sender carefully

Look at the email or phone number. If it is not tied to the company, treat it as suspicious.

7) Protect your personal information

Never share sensitive details like your Social Security number, banking information or ID through text. Real employers use secure systems, not text messages.

8) Delete and report the message

After you spot the red flags, delete the message right away. In addition, use your phone’s “Report Spam” option to flag it. This helps your carrier and messaging apps identify similar scams and block them for others. Also, Amazon recommends visiting its help pages to find additional information on how to identify scams and report them at amazon.com/ReportAScam.

Kurt’s key takeaways

At first, the message looks polished. It uses a name and references a well-known company while laying out pay and benefits. However, once you slow down, the problems become clear. For example, the greeting is generic, and you never applied. In addition, the sender does not match the company, and the phone number feels off. On top of that, the pay is unrealistic, and the hiring process is missing entirely. This is how most scams work. They depend on speed instead of accuracy.

Have you ever received a job text like this, and what tipped you off that it was a scam? Let us know by writing to us at Cyberguy.com

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Technology

Suno is a music copyright nightmare

Published

16 hours ago

April 6, 2026

Press Room

AI music platform Suno’s policy is that it does not permit the use of copyrighted material. You can upload your own tracks to remix or set your original lyrics to AI-generated music. But, it’s supposed to recognize and stop you from using other people’s songs and lyrics. Now, no system is perfect, but it turns out that Suno’s copyright filters are incredibly easy to fool.

With minimal effort and some free software, Suno will spit out AI-generated imitations of popular songs like Beyoncé‘s “Freedom,” Black Sabbath’s “Paranoid,” and Aqua’s “Barbie Girl” that are alarmingly close to the original. Most people will likely be able to tell the difference, but some could be mistaken for alternate takes or B-sides at a casual listen. What’s more, it’s possible someone could monetize these uncanny valley covers by exporting them and uploading them to streaming services. Suno declined to comment for this story.

Making these covers requires using Suno Studio, available on the company’s $24-a-month Premier Plan. Rather than prompting a whole song with text, Suno Studio lets you upload a track to edit or cover. It’s likely to catch and reject a well-known hit with no tweaks. But using a basic free tool like Audacity to slow down a track to half-speed or speed it up to twice normal will often bypass the filter, and adding a burst of white noise to the start and end seems to basically guarantee success. You can restore the original speed and cut the white noise in Suno Studio, and the copyrighted song becomes the seed for new AI music.

If you generate a cover of the imported audio without any style transfers, Suno basically spits out the original instrumental arrangement with very minimal tweaks to the sound palette if you’re using model 4.5 or 4.5+. Model v5 is a bit more aggressive in taking liberties with the source material, adding chugging guitar and galloping piano to “Freedom” and turning the Dead Kennedys’ “California Über Alles” into a fiddle-driven jig.

Suno lets you add vocals by generating lyrics or typing words into a box, and once again, it’s supposed to block anything copyrighted. If you copy and paste the official lyrics for a song from Genius, Suno will flag them and spit out gibberish vocals. But extremely minor changes can bypass this filter as well.

I was able to trick Suno Studio by tweaking the spelling of a handful of words in “Freedom” — changing “rain on this bitter love” to “reign on” and “tell the sweet I’m new” to “tell the suite” — and beyond the first verse and chorus, I didn’t even need to do that. The voice closely mimics the original recording, summoning slightly off-brand renditions of Ozzy or Beyoncé.

Indie artists might not even be afforded that level of protection. One of my own songs cleared the copyright filter while I was testing v5 of the company’s model. I was also able to get tracks by singer-songwriter Matt Wilson, Charles Bissell’s “Car Colors,” and experimental artist Claire Rousay by Suno’s copyright detection system without any changes at all. Artists on smaller labels or self-distributing through Bandcamp or services like DistroKid are most likely to slip through the cracks; DistroKid and CD Baby declined to comment.

The results of these AI covers fall firmly in the uncanny valley. The songs they’re covering are unmistakable: the riff from “Paranoid” remains identifiable and “Freedom” is obviously “Freedom” from the moment the marching snare hits kick in. But there is a lifelessness to them. Even if AI Ozzy is alarmingly accurate-sounding, it lacks nuance and dynamics, leading it to feel like an imitation of a human, rather than the real thing.

The instrumentals similarly discard any interesting artistic choices the originals make, or clone them in flat imitations. A non-jig “California Über Alles” cover has most of its rough edges sanded down so it sounds like a wedding band version of the original. Pink Floyd’s “Another Brick in the Wall” goes from an experiment in doom disco to just vacuous dancefloor filler. And, while it kind of nails David Gilmour’s guitar tone, it does away with any sense of phrasing or progression, turning the solo into just a mindless stream of notes.

Creating unauthorized covers violates both the stated purpose of Suno, and the terms of service. Moreover, Suno only appears to scan tracks on upload; it doesn’t seem to recheck outputs for potential infringement, or rescan tracks before exporting them. The path to monetizing Suno-created covers is simple from there. AI slopmongers could upload them through a distribution service like DistroKid and profit from other people’s songs without paying the typical royalties a cover would give the original composer. And independent artists seem to be the most vulnerable.

Folk artist Murphy Campbell discovered this recently when someone uploaded what seem to be AI covers of songs she posted on YouTube to her Spotify profile. (It’s not clear what system they were generated through.) Shortly afterwards, distributor Vydia filed copyright claims against her YouTube videos and began collecting royalties on them. And to highlight just how broken the whole system is, the songs which Vydia successfully filed copyright claims for are all in the public domain. Spotify eventually removed the AI covers, and Vydia has rescinded its copyright claims, but that only happened following a social media campaign by Campbell. Vydia says the two incidents are separate and it is not associated with the AI covers of Campbell’s work.

AI fakes are a problem for other artists too. Experimental composer William Basinski and indie rock group King Gizzard and The Lizard Wizard have had imitations slip through multiple filters and reach streaming platforms like Spotify. Sometimes, these fake songs can siphon up views straight from the artist’s own page. In a system where payouts can already be brutally low — Spotify requires a minimum of 1,000 streams to get paid — less famous musicians are hit hardest.

Suno is only one cog in a clearly broken system.

Services like Deezer, Qobuz, and Spotify have taken measures to combat spammy AI and impersonators. Spotify spokesperson Chris Macowski told The Verge that the company “takes protecting artists’ rights seriously, and approaches it from multiple angles. That includes safeguards to help prevent unauthorized content from being uploaded in the first place, along with systems that can identify duplicate or highly similar tracks. Those systems are backed by human review to make sure we’re getting it right.” But no system is perfect, and keeping up with a flood of AI slop enabled by platforms like Suno poses a challenge.

Macowski acknowledged the technical difficulties involved, saying, “It’s an area we’re continuing to invest in and evolve, especially as new technologies emerge.”

Suno is only one cog in a clearly broken system. But it’s one artists have particularly little recourse to fight. Bands can contact Spotify and have AI fakes removed from their profile. It’s harder to tell how those fakes are generated, and if they’re the result of Suno’s filters failing. And so far, Suno’s response is silence.

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