*From simple location-tracking apps to buttons that measure biometrics, college campuses have amped up surveillance in response to Covid-19.*

The article lacks a sharp conception for judging whether these systems are just or unjust and necessary or unnecessary, and for separating those characteristics from painfulness.

The conditions Vassar students had to sign up to must be very painful, and I might have taken a year off rather than accept them. But they are not unjust and may well be necessary to open the campus safely.

The PathCheck app's actions, assuming that the article describes them fully and accurately, seem to be legitimate provided the college makes proper commitments not to let any company or other organization handle any of the data nor to save it nor use it for anything else. But the fact that it is a nonfree app running in a mobile phone makes it unacceptable.

I'd apply the same criteria to reporting one's symptoms daily. That is ok, provided one doesn't have to do it via a portable phone or a nonfree program, and the school won't let any other organization handle the data, or save it for long.