The school scheduling app ‘Saturn’ has parents and teachers concerned about their students’ safety though it was primarily created to help students keep their schedules organized.
Though it was launched close to 5 years ago, Saturn has gained more popularity among students across the US who are downloading this app in 2023. Due to its increasing popularity, people have begun to raise questions about the privacy and security of the app.
Recently, Chris Cullum, a worried parent, made a Facebook post about his experience with Saturn. As an experiment, he logs on to the app, posing as a student at his daughter’s school. The creators of this app claim to have a specific verification process set up for new logins. Whereas, in reality, Cullum had no issues whatsoever while setting up an account.
“Upon launching Saturn, I was asked to provide a phone number as my login ID,” Cullum said. “I was prompted to enter my birthday and select a graduation year. I then was able to join any school I desired in the country. At this point, I have not had to verify anything except a phone number. Not my name, birthday, where I lived, email, relation to the school, etc.”
Cullum goes on to explain the simple registration process on this app, within seconds he had access to 350 students’ schedules, telling him where they were and where they would be throughout the school day.
“I was able to input a bogus schedule (choosing from a list of teachers the app provided) and see who was in any class. It then told me who all had joined my classes,” Cullum wrote. “ And then simply by changing the teachers on my own schedule. I was able to see who was in any class. So it’s not unreasonable to think that a predator or intruder could compile a full schedule for any student in the app without ever having to fully log in.”
In addition to the open schedules, students are able to add events and other activities to their calendar or the ‘bulletin’, which shares the information with everyone the student may be affiliated with on the app.
Similarly, a teacher on TikTok shares her concerns and experience while testing the safety of this app for her students and says that she “does not approve”. As a teacher, she says she doesn’t want her name and location on this app to be seen by a random unknown person.
In conclusion, the features of the Saturn app are not something to be taken lightly. According to many parents and teachers, this app may put the students’ and children’s security at risk since there is no way of knowing that the person who can see your schedule has good intentions. Students are warned to be wary of the strangers on the app.
