What is 'Saturn' and why are schools and sheriffs worried it's a risk to students?

As the 2023-2024 school year begins, the school districts and sheriff's offices in Escambia and Santa Rosa counties have alerted parents to an app that may breach student privacy.

The iOS application "Saturn" has led the Santa Rosa County school district to issue a statement to parents and guardians about the "concerning" app meant for high school students.

"The app allows students to log in using their personal cell numbers, Snapchat accounts, or student email addresses and that information allows students to join any school in the country," a district Facebook post said. "Kids can then friend each other, but there is no guarantee that the student sending the friend request is actually a student."

Florida-wide concerns: Concern prompts Brevard schools to clarify they're not using Saturn app

School year begins: Teachers in Escambia and Santa Rosa County welcome students on the first day of school

Escambia County Public Schools officials say they are aware of the app and told the News Journal that "Saturn" would be inaccessible on all district devices and students' personal devices if they are using the school network.

"We would be concerned with 'Saturn' or any app that might be used that could compromise their student-data privacy, or any of their personal private data," the Escambia County school district said in a statement toe the News Journal. "Our position would be we would love our parents to work with us, and be aware of what our students would be accessing on their phones, whether its 'Saturn,' harmful social media or whatever it is."

What is the "Saturn" app?

"Saturn" is a calendar app published on the App Store in 2018 that is built specifically for high school students, according to the web developer's website.

"Most high school calendars are super complicated, and high school is stressful enough without having to worry about where to be and when," their website says. "Saturn lets students control the chaos of their daily lives and allows them to spend more time focused on learning and engaging with their community."

The app allows high school students to upload their schedules and provides a daily look at where students need to be. It also has features that let students see what’s happening in their school through a “Bulletin” feature, which allows them to post updates visible to other students within the school.

Is the "Saturn" app safe for students?

It depends on who you ask. Officials in both the Escambia and Santa Rosa school districts believe the apps' security is of great enough concern to warrant issuing warning statements to parents.

Escambia County Sheriff Chip Simmons told the News Journal that school resource officers are aware of the app and urge parents and students to take caution when dealing with sensitive, private information.

Likewise, Santa Rosa County Sheriff Bob Johnson said he doesn't see how the app is helpful to students, parents or the school district due to its potential privacy problems.

"Anytime you put your information into an app that other people can see, is kind of concerning for me," Johnson said. "So, you have this app, and everyone knows your schedule, including bullies who can target you."

School threats: Gulf Breeze High School parents want threats of violence taken more seriously

According to "Saturn," the company maintains "rigorous content moderation processes in public forums" but also relies on users to report "uncomfortable" incidents on the application.

The calendar app says they do not allow violence, threats, nudity, graphic sexual images, references to child sexual exploitation or promotion of self-harm.

Is "Saturn" only available to high school students?

Yes. The app is currently intended for high school students only. The app even goes as far to say, "While teachers, administrators, all play an extremely important role in the educational journey, Saturn communities are for students only," adding they "take student safety extremely seriously."

There are reportedly more than 16,000 students across the nation using the app.

Why are parents and school officials warning against Saturn?

In a now-viral Facebook post Aug. 10, Brevard County father Chris Cullum claimed that the app allowed him to create a login and see his daughter’s school without any verification except a phone number.

He added that the app indicated it required a school email to see the schedules of other students, but by inputting a fake schedule from a list of teachers provided by the app, he could see other students’ schedules and a girls’ athletic team roster. The app also allows students to include their social media accounts on their profiles, as well as the ability to direct message one another.

He noted that a predator or intruder could potentially compile a full schedule for any student in the app without ever having to fully log in, but it still allows anyone in the school to see any student's schedule, whether it's a bully, an unwanted admirer or a stalker.

On Aug. 13, the creators released a formal statement about the safety concerns. They said they have strengthened their verification system and walled off unverified users from others.

"Our rapid growth has invited reasonable questions from students, parents, and schools about who we are, what we do, and how we aim to keep school communities and students safe. We want to be clear: our most important job is keeping students safe − and we take this responsibility very seriously. We’re constantly working to make Saturn safer for every user on the platform."

According to the web developer's safety center, the app uses a verification process that combines "different processes and signals" like contact book overlap with other users and school email verification.

Cullum updated his post Aug. 16 to say "things are headed in a better direction" since his original experiment with the app, and that Saturn had contacted him directly to note security changes they had made to their app, including that users now must be verified with a school email address to see the students, their schedules, personal details or the bulletin of calendar events.

Fort Myers News-Press reporter Samantha Neely and Florida Today contributed to this report.

This article originally appeared on Pensacola News Journal: Saturn app may impact Escambia, Santa Rosa students' privacy