Accordingly, the Court determines that Cleveland State's practice of conducting room scans is unreasonable under the Fourth Amendment,' Judge Calabrese concluded.

Ogletree's privacy interest in his home outweighs Cleveland State's interests in scanning his room. Philip Calabrese on Monday decided in Ogletree's favor: Room scans are unconstitutional.

citizens against 'unreasonable searches and seizures.' In its defense, Cleveland State argued that room scans are not 'searches,' because they are limited in scope, conducted to ensure academic fairness and exam integrity, and not coerced. Ogletree then sued his university, alleging that the room scan violated his Fourth Amendment rights protecting U.S. He complied, and the recording data was stored by one of the school's third-party proctoring tools, Honorlock, according to the ruling documents. Before starting the exam, he was asked to show the virtual proctor his bedroom. The remote-proctored exam that colleges began using widely during the pandemic saw a first big legal test of its own - one that concluded in a ruling applauded by digital privacy advocates.Ī federal judge this week sided with a student at Cleveland State University in Ohio, who alleged that a room scan taken before his online test as a proctoring measure was unconstitutional.Īaron Ogletree, a chemistry student, sat for a test during his spring semester last year. In what's believed to be the first case of its kind, a student argued that his university violated his Fourth Amendment rights when it asked him for a webcam recording of his testing space.

Zoom test room