BURLINGTON — Cyber-threat prevention company Social Sentinel has laid off 19 staffers, 12 in Vermont, the company announced this week.
The Burlington-based firm scans public social media posts in school’s geographic areas and alerts school leadership when their keyword-based algorithms detect a threat. Five school districts in the state told VTDigger that they have or had contracts with Social Sentinel last month.
Social Sentinel spokesperson Alison Miley said in a statement the cutbacks were part of a strategic shift.
“While the education industry has been our top priority, we believe that a focus on other markets will both create more opportunities for public safety and mental wellness support, and also help position Social Sentinel for future growth,” Miley said. “As we reposition ourselves internally, we are scaling back our team in order to scale up.”
Miley said the company was still eyeing future growth.
“Although scaling back right now is necessary, we envision it as temporary,” Miley said. “We are committed to our mission and are confident in the future growth of Social Sentinel.”
Miley did not immediately respond to further questions from VTDigger about the size of the company, the kinds of positions affected and how the cuts would allow the company to pivot its focus.
The company’s software scans “more than 1 billion” social media posts daily to identify “potential threats or cries for help,” according to a 2018 press release.
Former Dealer.com co-founder and CEO Rick Gibbs became the company’s president last year. At the time, Social Sentinel was experiencing “triple digit year-over-year revenue growth” and had grown its employee base by 80% in 2018.
Founded by former UVM police chief Gary Margolis in 2014, Social Sentinel expected to double in size in 2019, according to that press release.
The company, and similar companies which use artificial intelligence software to monitor students’ online behavior, have faced scrutiny for privacy concerns associated with their product.
James Duff Lyall, the executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Vermont, told VTDigger earlier this month that the expanded surveillance “does real harm, undermining student privacy and resulting in rights violations that disproportionately impact students of color.”
Margolis said questions about privacy were “mind-bogglingly frustrating.”
“We built a technology that actually helps prevent bad things from happening,” he said this month. “By giving information that can give context to what’s going on, in a way that respects privacy, and all I do is get questioned by you and folks in the media about privacy issues.”
