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I like to play stuff like Minecraft Educational Edition with my friends after school but I'm not sure if the school will find out, since if they do, it might look bad for me.

Will schools be able to see what I'm doing on their Chromebook including downloaded apps and how long I've been using it?

schroeder
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warcraftisgood
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    Need more information, is it a chromebook provided by the school? Are you on your home network or the schools network after school? – CaffeineAddiction Sep 09 '21 at 20:34
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    @CaffeineAddiction the title and the body says "their Chromebooks" – schroeder Sep 09 '21 at 21:06
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    if another organisation has provided you with a device you have no expectation of privacy - now is a great time to break from the habit of a single device for everything: fix the problem at the source and partition your personal life away from devices "owned" by others (including "big tech" goog/gmail/twit/face/...etc accounts) - depending on where you are in the world you'll be able to get your hands on a half-decent piece of eWaste for the price of a packet of cig's – brynk Sep 09 '21 at 21:43

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If the Chromebook is issued by the school, you are likely also using a school Google account. Both your account and the laptop are administered and monitored through the Google Workspace (G Suite) admin site or through 3rd party device monitoring software on the Chromebook.

Installed apps and time spent on apps is a normal and typical type of thing to monitor.

schroeder
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9.9/10 they can. Many schools also have Remote Desktop programs which allow them to watch your screen and I’ve heard of some of my own schoolmates getting in potential trouble because of that. But, yes most likely they can track app use.

If you're just playing Minecraft Edu. with a couple of friends you will likely be ok unless they are VERY strict.

schroeder
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LoganS
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Downloaded apps is definitely something they can check, and it's quite easy to do using the Google Workspace admin site (it's part of the Mobile Device Management feature). Below is a screenshot from my Workspace account, showing some apps installed on my phone - the same interface is used to view Chromebook installed apps.

Checking the amount of time spent in each app is less easy - those sorts of metrics are only easily available for a few of Google's own apps (eg. Drive, GMail, Docs etc). However: Google publishes a million different APIs for retrieving metrics and logs, so there's a good chance that if your school's IT department cared enough they could probably find out. Also, as another poster has mentioned, your school may have installed monitoring apps that go over and above the built-in Google monitoring and logging services.

The main things you should be considering here are:

  1. Is this disrupting your learning? (sounds like it isn't, since it's after school).
  2. Are you using the Chromebooks to view any unsafe or inappropriate content?
  3. Does the school have a specific "Acceptable Use Policy" that you're breaching?

If the answer to the above is no, I'd have thought you'd be in the clear. But it may be best to check with your teacher just in case.

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Gethin LW
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