Verkadaprovidessecurity solutions,including cameras, access, sensors and more.The company responded quickly to the pandemic by expanding its portfolio of services to include motion plotting, crowd notifications, contact tracing with face searchandhuman heat-mapping.In particular, they marketed their services to schools, promising that their cameras and sensors can “detect vaping students,”provide searchable surveillance footage based on clothing colours, and “respond to the real threat of school shooters.” To promote their new COVID-19 Response Suite, they offered 90 days "of complimentary equipment and cloud services to help healthcare facilities, shelters, and municipal services across the US, Canada and the UK.”
While Verkada offers the most advanced technologies and data analysis to ensure that school staff can monitor students with unprecedented precision, what cost does it have on students when they know their behaviour is being constantly monitored and analysed? And will these systems stay in place after the immediate threat of Covid dissipates?