School used issued laptops to spy on kids...

[ChristopherCoy]

School used student laptop webcams to spy on them at school and home Boing Boing


"According to the filings in Blake J Robbins v Lower Merion School District (PA) et al, the laptops issued to high-school students in the well-heeled Philly suburb have webcams that can be covertly activated by the schools' administrators, who have used this facility to spy on students and even their families. The issue came to light when the Robbins's child was disciplined for "improper behavior in his home" and the Vice Principal used a photo taken by the webcam as evidence. The suit is a class action, brought on behalf of all students issued with these machines.

If true, these allegations are about as creepy as they come. I don't know about you, but I often have the laptop in the room while I'm getting dressed, having private discussions with my family, and so on. The idea that a school district would not only spy on its students' clickstreams and emails (bad enough), but also use these machines as AV bugs is purely horrifying.

Schools are in an absolute panic about kids divulging too much online, worried about pedos and marketers and embarrassing photos that will haunt you when you run for office or apply for a job in 10 years. They tell kids to treat their personal details as though they were precious.

But when schools take that personal information, indiscriminately invading privacy (and, of course, punishing students who use proxies and other privacy tools to avoid official surveillance), they send a much more powerful message: your privacy is worthless and you shouldn't try to protect it. "

[Jeff_Green]

That is quite creepy. While I think what the district did was inexcusable, if it is schools equipment, they do have a right to monitor what goes on ON that computer. They don't have a right to monitor what goes on in front of the computer though. If you send email or surf the web with their computer, they have a right to know where you are going and what you are doing on it... IMO.

[Ahh!]

Jeff/Christopher! Holy d@ɹɔ! that is unbelievable! Heck, there might be (and IMHO should be) criminal charges involved, too!

[mmuhlenkamp]

Wow, that's just scary. Why would anyone think that this is okay to do?

[Toad]

Originally Posted by ChristopherCoy

but I often have the laptop in the room while I'm getting dressed

Seems to me that this right here would be grounds enough to charge the school people watching (and recording) the videos with child pornography.
Slap the principal in the face with a sex offender charge and see how quickly this $h!t stops!

[CaptainTom]

It's OK Christopher. I have the direct access to your webcam and you look cute in your "Call 911 when I ain't working" jammies

[ChristopherCoy]

Originally Posted by CaptainTom

It's OK Christopher. I have the direct access to your webcam and you look cute in your "Call 911 when I ain't working" jammies

mmm hmmmm....

[Cajungaltx]

holy cow - I'd have someone's head on a freaking platter...sheesh...

[Crashoran]

How can they discipline for "Bad behavior at home"? What are they, their parents?

[swanny338]

I have read about a lot of messed up things schools have done... But this one most definitely wins the seriously, what the heck were the freaking thinking award.

"Improper Behavior at home."

What other dimension were they in when they came up with that.

[smdebnam]

Letter from the Supt:
LMSD | Lower Merion School District Announcements

[ChristopherCoy]

Funny how fast the disable things when allegations arise. Wonder if they'd have been disabled if they hadn't done anything wrong to begin with. Of course its all just allegations at this point....

[Dobick]

if everything that I have read is true (the filed suit and the letter stating deactivation)
then the only time the cameras on the laptops were remotely activated were if the student reported it stolen.

Therefore, Blake must have reported his laptop stolen, and when the IT team activated the webcam on the laptop they were able to get a photo of the student doing something he shouldn't have been doing.

That is if you believe what has been published so far.

You can bet that the subpeonas are flying for all sorts of electronic records from the school, and if a very lengthy paper trail was not kept the school will be in very hot water.

If the school turns over records that show that this was done on a nightly basis for the length of the program and they sampled 20 or 30 kids a day to "check on them" then the amount of actual damages will become astronomical (100$ per day per incident for actual damages - not to mention punitive damages)

If on the other hand this kid reported the laptop stolen because he showed up to class one day without it, and this is the only time that the remote webcam system had been activated, then the school district might have a prayer of getting off with just a bunch of bad publicity and a few people losing jobs.

Can't wait to see how this plays out

[KD5NRH]

Okay, those of you who have been high school boys at some point in your lives, (or at least, those who have been straight high school boys) think about this: we all put at least some effort into getting a peek into the girls' locker room back then. How much of an incentive would this have been to become a hacker so you could get live video of their bedrooms?

Granted, we'd have a lot more computer-literate HS graduates, but is this really the best way to encourage them to learn to use the Internet?

[smdebnam]

Here are some interesting comments regarding this issue and some speculation(rumors):
Lawsuit: PA School District Using School-Issued Laptop Webcams to Spy on Students : America's Right

There has to be more to this story.