An unexpected drawback of Apple's latest flagship laptop, the MacBook Pro with Touch Bar has recently been a concern of several state bar associations in different states. Law students in several states are now being obliged to disable the Touch Bar on their respective Apple branded laptops, or they may leave it at home if they plan to use the device when they take the bar exam this February.
A testing software company ExamSoft announced that the Touch bar's predictive text feature might compromise exam integrity. The Touch Bar automatically suggest phrases and words that are relevant to what the users are typing, so presumably, students can add predictive texts ahead of their scheduled exam.
Several bar associations located in California, New York, and Colorado will ban MackBook Pro's with Touch Bar starting next month. ExamSoft, the company that makes digital bar exam tests, released a note on its site last week explaining to test takers and administrators how to turn off the said feature.
The company added, "Exam Administrators will want to ensure that the newest feature included with some MacBook Pro's is disabled before a student begins their exam. By default, the Touch Bar will show predictive text depending on what the student is typing, compromising exam integrity."
Proctors have already been instructed to monitor models with the Touch Bar features and technicians will be provided to make sure the feature is disabled. Board examiners will also be approved to use the laptops provided the followed ExamSoft's protocols for reversing the Touch Bar back to a row of standard function keys.
However, the reason for the ban is still unclear. According to an online publication, it's still unclear why ExamSoft and many state bar associations are concerned about the feature. ExamSoft didn't yet confirm on how and whether anyone has actually managed to do it. On the other hand, Apple didn't immediately respond to a request for comment about the issue.
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