Harvard Took Photos Of 2,000 Students Without Their Consent

The university conducted a study last spring on classroom attendance and publicized its findings to faculty Tuesday evening.

Less than two years after the Ivy League school took a hit for secretly searching through faculty emails, it is once again in the spotlight for its failure to inform subjects of investigation.

The Boston Globe reported that members of Harvard's Initiative for Learning and teaching fixed cameras into 10 lecture halls and captured a photo every minute of each class in order to track attendance throughout lectures. Faculty were not notified of the study until after the data had been collected, and the students who appeared in the photos have yet to be notified.

Harvard Vice Provost Peter K. Bol contends that after consulting a university review board before the study began, he was told that acquiring consent was unnecessary, as the students' identities had no effect on the research itself.

Not all faculty are on board with the study, which calls into question issues of privacy.

Computer science professor Harry Lewis told The Boston Globe, "Just because technology can be used to answer a question doesn't mean that it should be. And if you watch people electronically and don't tell them ahead of time, you should tell them afterwards."

A representative from Harvard was not immediately available for comment on when the photographed students will be contacted.

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