PA School Spied On Students Via School-Issued Laptop Webcams

[dburkhead]

BBC News - US school accused of web spying




Hmm, so I wonder how they took a photo of the "wrong doing" in the student's home if the program was only activated if a computer was listed as lost or stolen?

Ding. Ding. Ding. Ding. We have a winner. How indeed.

 

[furbymac]

a flat head screw driver and a hammer could disable said web cam and mic very easily

 

[Cat-Herder]

an 1/8" phone plug in the microphone input will negate the onboard microphone, and a piece of electrical tape over the camera. all my macs at work have this "modification" done to them.

 

[Scutter01]

a flat head screw driver and a hammer could disable said web cam and mic very easily

Yeah? How does that fix the problem, though? All it does is leave you with a broken camera and probably a lost deposit when the school bills you for the damage. Furthermore, how would you even know there was a problem? According to the court filing, NOTHING in any of the usage agreements or documentation indicated that the school had the ability to remotely activate the camera.

 

[Joe Williams]

Yeah? How does that fix the problem, though? All it does is leave you with a broken camera and probably a lost deposit when the school bills you for the damage. Furthermore, how would you even know there was a problem? According to the court filing, NOTHING in any of the usage agreements or documentation indicated that the school had the ability to remotely activate the camera.

Just read a news report in the Philly Inquirer where the lady who set the laptops for kids program up said they didn't make it public knowledge because it was a security feature, intended to catch thieves. If the allegations are true, I'm guessing someone is more screwed than just this lawsuit, since there seems to be an absolute awareness among school officials that such conduct is utterly impermissible.

What if the student's "misconduct" was possessing a stolen computer? How do we all feel about the use of the feature now? I still don't like the capability at all, and think it needs to be gone. I'm guessing it's useless now, anyway, since I can't imagine there are many laptops left with operable cameras and mikes. Just having the ability to switch on spy gear without a warrant is intolerable, to me.

Virginia DiMedio, who as the Lower Merion district's technology director until she retired last summer helped launch the laptop initiative, said yesterday: "If there was a report that a computer was stolen, the next time a person opened it up, it would take their picture and give us their IP [Internet protocol] address - the location of where it was coming from."
She said that the feature had been used several times to trace stolen laptops, but that there had been no discussion of using it to monitor students' behavior. "I can't imagine anyone in the district did anything other than track stolen computers," she said.
DiMedio said the district did not widely publicize the feature "for obvious reasons. It involved computer security, and that is all it was being used for."
She added: "People ask you all the time, 'Can you do this? Can you do this?' . . . But you have to be conscious of students' rights. I would not have walked into that swamp. . . . You want kids to use the technology. You want them to feel safe, to feel trusted."

Student claims school spied on him via computer webcam | Philadelphia Inquirer | 02/19/2010

 

[eldirector]

IF (all caps on purpose) the student stole the laptop, the school activated the security software, and the evidence was immediately turned over to the proper authorities, then sure. There are apps for the consumer market that YOU can install for this purpose. It allows the cops to have a positive ID of who was using the laptop after it was stolen.

However, IF (again, all caps) the student was issued this laptop (therefore, not stolen) and they were monitoring activities not related to the use of school property (for example, he was caught smoking in his bedroom, not using the laptop at all), then the school is in a HUGE legal mess.

The issue isn't (necessarily) the security software. It is their criminal usage of the software.

 

[rich8483]

IF (all caps on purpose) the student stole the laptop, the school activated the security software, and the evidence was immediately turned over to the proper authorities, then sure. There are apps for the consumer market that YOU can install for this purpose. It allows the cops to have a positive ID of who was using the laptop after it was stolen.

However, IF (again, all caps) the student was issued this laptop (therefore, not stolen) and they were monitoring activities not related to the use of school property (for example, he was caught smoking in his bedroom, not using the laptop at all), then the school is in a HUGE legal mess.

The issue isn't (necessarily) the security software. It is their criminal usage of the software.

this brings up another issue. how or why does a school feel responsible for punishing a student for something that happened off of school property. like years ago i got into a fight with a kid off of school grounds unrelated to school and we both got a saturday school. or when a kid gets cought drinking off of school grounds, he gets suspended or expelled. how or why do they feel that is their place/jurisdiction. if it happened off of school grounds, its the parents problem to start with.

 

[eldirector]

I hear ya, rich8483. Like many government agencies, they are extending their reach.

BTW: I grabbed a bunch of their policy documents off of their website earlier. Can't find their student laptop agreement, but DID find their "we can search any car parked on our property, without the owner's consent, even if it belongs to someone not affiliated with the school" policy. Warrantless search, anyone?

Still looking for the laptop agreement...

 

[Blue Tile Spook]

FBI Investigating School District Accused Of Secretly Activating Webcams Inside Students' Homes - cbs3.com

Families were not informed of the possibility the webcams might be activated in their homes without their permission in the paperwork students sign when they get the computers, district spokesman Doug Young said.

That answers one question. The parents were never informed of the capabilities of the machine nor the schools privileges.

According to his family, Blake was reprimanded for an image captured on his webcam inside his home.

"She described to me in my room and she described what I was doing … she said she thought I had pills and said she thought I was selling drugs," Blake said.

Blake said he was actually holding a Mike & Ike candy in the video and not pills. His parents were then told about the incident.

And that answer another question. Possible drug dealing in the home. What still has yet to be addressed is whether this laptop was reported as stolen.

 

[Manan]

Lucy, I see a FELONY coming on here!!!!!!!!! The audacity of those liberal meddling do gooders. Ya can't record a voice without a warrant if that person (ie, the family) has a reasonable expectation of privacy. And I think in my home that expectation of privacy exits.

 

[Timjoebillybob]

Federal charges may be pending. Well at least the FBI is investigating it.
FBI Probing School Webcam Spy Case - CBS News

 

[Blue Tile Spook]

lol Scooped ya, TJBB. Sorry.

 

[Bill of Rights]

FBI Investigating School District Accused Of Secretly Activating Webcams Inside Students' Homes - cbs3.com

That answers one question. The parents were never informed of the capabilities of the machine nor the schools privileges.

And that answer another question. Possible drug dealing in the home. What still has yet to be addressed is whether this laptop was reported as stolen.

Wait, so... they questioned the student, then informed the parent(s)? Oooh, this is getting better and better.

I would consider this a financial opportunity, personally.

 

[Bill of Rights]

Lucy, I see a FELONY coming on here!!!!!!!!! The audacity of those liberal meddling do gooders. Ya can't record a voice without a warrant if that person (ie, the family) has a reasonable expectation of privacy. And I think in my home that expectation of privacy exits.

Um.. Cite, please, per IN law? AFAIK, any such recording is inadmissible in court, but a recording only requires one party to the conversation be aware of it.

I could be wrong. I'd like to know it if so. Thanks!

Blessings,
Bill

 

[Joe Williams]

Um.. Cite, please, per IN law? AFAIK, any such recording is inadmissible in court, but a recording only requires one party to the conversation be aware of it.

I could be wrong. I'd like to know it if so. Thanks!

Blessings,
Bill

IN law permits recording by private parties with only one person being aware of such.

However, this incident took place in PA, and there it is very much illegal to surreptiously record a conversation without informing the other party, if the other party has a reasonable expectation of privacy, or non-interception, such as in your own home. It is, in fact, a felony in PA for a private party to do so. For a government agency to do so, without a warrant? That's why the feds are now involved. One doesn't have to get permission, per the law, merely make the other party aware of that the conversation is being recorded.

 

[Scutter01]

Federal judge orders Pa. schools to stop laptop spying


Also, check out this related blog post. As far as I'm concerned, it's pure speculation and hearsay, but if true, then the whole story just got a LOT more disturbing.

Stryde Hax: The Spy at Harriton High

 

[hornadylnl]

$20 says nobody will serve a single day in jail over this even though they should all be in pound me in the rectum prison for it.

 

[Scutter01]

Update to the story:

Lawyer: Laptops took thousands of images

By John P. Martin
INQUIRER STAFF WRITER
The system that Lower Merion school officials used to track lost and stolen laptops wound up secretly capturing thousands of images, including photographs of students in their homes, Web sites they visited, and excerpts of their online chats, says a new motion filed in a suit against the district.
More than once, the motion asserts, the camera on Robbins' school-issued laptop took photos of Robbins as he slept in his bed. Each time, it fired the images off to network servers at the school district.

Back at district offices, the Robbins motion says, employees with access to the images marveled at the tracking software. It was like a window into "a little LMSD soap opera," a staffer is quoted as saying in an e-mail to Carol Cafiero, the administrator running the program.
"I know, I love it," she is quoted as having replied.


More at the source:

Lawyer: Laptops took thousands of images | Philadelphia Inquirer | 04/15/2010

 

[eldirector]

...in an e-mail to Carol Cafiero, the administrator running the program.
"I know, I love it," she is quoted as having replied.

Someone is going to BURN!!!!

Thanks for the update, Scutter!

 

[dburkhead]

I've said it before and I'll say it again, "Conspiracy to produce child pornography."