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

[jason]

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

By Cory Doctorow at 11:49 PM February 17, 2010

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.

LINK (http://www.boingboing.net/2010/02/17/school-used-student.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed:+boingboing/iBag+%28Boing+Boing%29)

[BullsFan]

If it's true...EWWWW.

[GreenMonster]

If they are spying on the students are they also spying on the faculty too???

[Cats Fan]

think back to your younger days...or for some of yall yesterday.....what do teenage boys look at over the internet (:cool: ) and what do they like to right there and then :confused: :eek: :1omg!: thats right boys and girls...I guarantee that at least one person is going to come out with a child pornography case!

[jason]

PHILADELPHIA – A suburban Philadelphia school district accused of spying on students at home via school-issued computers told parents it only activated the webcams to find missing laptops.

The schools' technology and security departments would activate the webcam when any of the 2,300 student laptops were reported lost or stolen, Lower Merion School District Superintendent Christopher McGinley said. He posted the letter to parents on the district Web site late Thursday, amid widespread student outrage and the filing of a potential class-action lawsuit alleging wiretap and privacy violations.

"The security feature's capabilities were limited to taking a still image of the operator and the operator's screen. This feature was only used for the narrow purpose of locating a lost, stolen or missing laptop," McGinley wrote. "The District never activated the security feature for any other purpose or in any other manner whatsoever."

Student Blake Robbins and his parents filed the electronic-privacy suit came after an assistant principal at Harriton High School told him the camera had caught him doing something inappropriate at home. Michael Robbins, his father, confirmed with the educator that the school could activate the webcams remotely, the lawsuit said.

The affluent suburban district issues laptops to all students at its two high schools, Harriton and Lower Merion High School.

The suit did not indicate that Blake Robbins's laptop had ever been reported lost or stolen. Neither the district nor family lawyer Mark Haltzman immediately returned phone messages Friday morning, and the family has declined to comment on the suit, which was filed Tuesday in federal court in Philadelphia.

Experts in electronic privacy law believe the district's actions could amount to illegal wiretapping.

"I think they had to get consent to take photos," said University of San Francisco law professor Susan Friewald, who writes on the issue.

"It seems like a great idea to have the school issue a laptop," she said. "(But) if the school districts are going to use them to spy on students, we should certainly be concerned."

The security feature allows district personnel to remotely activate the webcam and take a picture of the user and the computer screen. That information can then be used to track down a laptop that has been reported stolen or missing.

Lower Merion spokesman Doug Young confirmed Friday that the district believes the webcams were only used in isolated instances of reported theft or loss. Nonetheless, a review is underway of both the activations and the policy.

"We're proud of taking the lead with this initiative, and giving laptops to students, but anytime you're talking about technology and education and kids, there's an important conversation to be had about privacy and balance," Young told The Associated Press on Friday.

"We've taken pause over the last day and gone back and begun to review everything that's related to our policies and procedures," he said.

He could not discuss details of the Robbins lawsuit. However, he said district officials do not believe anyone violated the activation policy.

"We intend to vigorously defend ourselves and we intend to prevail (in the suit)," Young said.

Yahoo LINK (http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100219/ap_on_re_us/us_laptops_spying_on_students)

[waterboy]

I don't care what the school's reasoning is behind the spying, it IS spying if the computer hasn't been reported stolen! If the school is going to use taxpayer money to defend itself, what do they care? This is ridiculous, in my opinion! The school should admit they were wrong, and take necessary steps to prevent any intrusion like this from happening again. If the kid was smart, he could remove their ability to track it, but that's another story.......:devil:

[SWMustang]

Originally posted by waterboy
I don't care what the school's reasoning is behind the spying, it IS spying if the computer hasn't been reported stolen! If the school is going to use taxpayer money to defend itself, what do they care? This is ridiculous, in my opinion! The school should admit they were wrong, and take necessary steps to prevent any intrusion like this from happening again. If the kid was smart, he could remove their ability to track it, but that's another story.......:devil:


if it was to locate a stolen computer then how do they explain this:

Student Blake Robbins and his parents filed the electronic-privacy suit came after an assistant principal at Harriton High School told him the camera had caught him doing something inappropriate at home. Michael Robbins, his father, confirmed with the educator that the school could activate the webcams remotely, the lawsuit said.

[waterboy]

Originally posted by SWMustang
if it was to locate a stolen computer then how do they explain this:

Student Blake Robbins and his parents filed the electronic-privacy suit came after an assistant principal at Harriton High School told him the camera had caught him doing something inappropriate at home. Michael Robbins, his father, confirmed with the educator that the school could activate the webcams remotely, the lawsuit said.
:confused: They were SPYING! Pure and simple...... It doesn't look like the school cares what you think, either, because the school says, "We intend to vigorously defend ourselves and we intend to prevail (in the suit)." What they won't say is they will be using our tax money to do so...:mad:

[Maroon87]

The assistant principal at that HS has to be the dumbest person alive to have admitted that the spying took place and then trying to punish the kid...:doh:

[CenTexSports]

What if they were logged into the ISD web and were looking at pornographic sites. I am sure that they can track site usage and they would probably not put out in public the name of a minor that was duing this. I don't have any problems with the ISD taking a picture of someone using their equipment that is on an inappropriate website. Especially since the agreement they signed to get the computer would have had provisions against doing so.

[Txbroadcaster]

Originally posted by CenTexSports
What if they were logged into the ISD web and were looking at pornographic sites. I am sure that they can track site usage and they would probably not put out in public the name of a minor that was duing this. I don't have any problems with the ISD taking a picture of someone using their equipment that is on an inappropriate website. Especially since the agreement they signed to get the computer would have had provisions against doing so.


you can do that without taking pictures of a kid at his home

[BaseballUmp]

this is what i don't understand, how can you punish a kid for something he did at home with the picture you took while spying on them? even if he was looking at some dirty sites or whatever, theres no need to take a picture. you can easily find out what they have been looking at. no need to capture the moment. this is ridiculous and i hope that school district goes down

[sinton66]

Tape over the webcam lens......or a permanent marker.

They'd find out real quick if it was being used for other than "reported lost or stolen".