High school spys on students with web cams

[patio]

Excellent point.
It has been a slow news week overall...

[James1431997]

1) The computers are issued to all of the students (affluent neighborhood) and they are all Macs!
- I wonder if Apple helped them "rig" the computers with spyware and can be held in-part liable?

I think Apple's position would be fine. If they did help, they would be perfectly within the law, as the INTENDED use was fine. Locating lost or stolen property.
Those misusing the technology, as the article said, would not, and deserve a jail scentence and being refused the right to work in ANY JOB with under - 18s or in a position of trust. I mean it happened in the UK. Nursery Worker taking pictures of kids. She went to jail, and she's like public enemy number one now.

On a completely unrelated note

Any of this was related?
Are you sure you haven't mixed your onions up with say, Mushrooms?

[CBMatt]

2) There was not one mention of the image that was shown to the student as described in the web article.
- Is the picture sensationalism or did the sensational seeking media just leave that part out?

Although I don't support the school's tactics at all, part of me wonders if the picture in question was taken because the laptop was reported stolen (this would certainly help the school's case).  After all, they're not saying what was going on in the picture, so we have no idea what happened.  Everyone going on about *censored* pictures is just getting carried away with their fantasies.

[rthompson80819]

From CNN.

http://www.cnn.com/2010/CRIME/02/19/laptop.suit/index.html?hpt=Sbin

After this came to light the school issued a statement and at no point did they say the laptop was reported stolen.  Out of 3,000 students, I have a hard time believing one boy was the only one spied upon.

[Brad7]

Unbelievable story! I don't think it requires much imagination to figure out what the boy was probably "doing" when the picture was snapped. I find it simply amazing that it would be labeled "inappropriate behavior" when there isn't a High School age boy anywhere in the world engaging in that behavior probably on a nearly daily basis. That someone would activate a remote cam on kids this age after hours and KNOWING that fact to me is simply mind boggling and worthy of criminal charges. Attempted procurement of child pornography would be a good start.

[evilfantasy]

Kim Komando did a segment on this over the weekend. She said creepy doesn't even begin to describe what happened.

Still no mention of the photo though.

[evilfantasy]

>>>FBI will investigate Pa. school district webcam spying<<<

The FBI has said it will be checking to see if any federal wiretapping or computer-related laws were broken by a Pennsylvania school district in connection with an incident in which someone turned on the webcam in a school-issued computer and spied on a student in his own home.

The incident occurred in Lower Merion School District, located in Montgomery County near Philadelphia. The county district attorney also is investigating.

Last week, a student filed suit in federal court after facing disciplinary action as a result of information collected from the web cam on his school-issued Apple laptop. In the complaint, he alleges that school officials confronted him with a photograph of him engaging in “improper behavior” that was taken in his home.

The school had installed the webcam spyware on the 2,300 laptops issued to high school students in order to help find the machines if they were lost or stolen. Only two employees were authorized to activate the cameras.

Preserving privacy gets tougher and tougher as technology develops. Perfectly legitimate information systems are full of personal information or access to it -- such as this case -- and search technology it is getting better and better. It just makes it too easy for employees to snoop or officials to misuse the systems. Guarding privacy is a serious job involving licensing agreements, procedures for employees who access data, intrusion prevention and hopefully encryption.

This story is about a serious insider threat. Only two people were supposed to have access to the technology to turn on the web cams and it was only to be used only to find lost or stolen machines. Instead, according to the suit, the system was used by someone for some kind of enforcement action that wasn't spelled out to the students and their families in advance.

The result is a FEDERAL criminal investigation and a FEDERAL lawsuit in addition to a possible action in county court. That is tremendously damaging to the school district’s reputation, is probably going to cost the district a load of money and is probably going to cost some people their jobs.

It’s easy to get paranoid about the cameras and government monitoring systems that seem to expand with each year. About five years ago a security researcher I knew began saying: “there's no privacy. Get over it.”

I had hoped he was just being pessimistic. I’m not too sure any more.

Oh yea, for the other 2,299 students in the Lower Marion School District: a piece of duct tape over the web cam in your school computer is a good lo-tech remediation.

Story here: “F.B.I. Queries Webcam Use by Schools” http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/21/us/21spy.html?hpw

Tom Kelchner

Now it's getting interesting. 

[CBMatt]

I wonder if getting sued by the money-hungry parents is going to cause the school to take back all of the laptops.  Heh.

[rthompson80819]

It’s easy to get paranoid about the cameras and government monitoring systems that seem to expand with each year. About five years ago a security researcher I knew began saying: “there's no privacy. Get over it.”

Most people are getting used to traffic cameras, ATM cameras, etc., but nobody expects a camera in their bedroom, and they never should.

[rthompson80819]

From PC World.

In the lawsuit, Robbins claims that an assistant principal at Harriton High School used photos from his laptop's Web cam to accuse him of "improper behavior." He later told an ABC News affiliate that the school mistook a pill-shaped Mike & Ike candy for drugs.

[BC_Programmer]

Since when did schools get authority over children when they aren't in school anyway?

[Helpmeh]

Since when did schools get authority over children when they aren't in school anyway?

It's not the children the school has authority over, it's the laptops.

[BC_Programmer]

It's not the children the school has authority over, it's the laptops.

That doesn't really explain any of this; unless, as was stated before, this laptop had been reported stolen. however, if that was the case then it would be safe to assume that any disciplinary action that is taken would be against the person who stole it, not against the person they lent the laptop to for (among other things) having candy that looks like drugs.

[Helpmeh]

That doesn't really explain any of this; unless, as was stated before, this laptop had been reported stolen. however, if that was the case then it would be safe to assume that any disciplinary action that is taken would be against the person who stole it, not against the person they lent the laptop to for (among other things) having candy that looks like drugs.

I was just saying that they have authority over the laptops, but that doesn't mean planting spyware/invisibly running some webcam program and god knows what on the laptops without the students knowing should be allowed.

[James1431997]

Since when did schools get authority over children when they aren't in school anyway?

Well. My school will punish you if you are caught doing anything in uniform.