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View Full Version : UPDATE on school laptop webcam spying story




GunnyFreedom
04-20-2010, 01:11 PM
Update from the story about 6 weeks ago of a Philadelphis school district using it's laptops to spy on students even when "off duty" at home or even asleep.

Following a subpoena and discovery (given 56k images recovered by a computer forensics expert) the school district now admits that yes indeed, it did spy on students after all:


District secretly captured 56,000 images from student laptops (http://www.bakersfieldnow.com/news/national/91610024.html)

By MARYCLAIRE DALE, Associated Press Writer

Story Created: Apr 20, 2010 at 10:03 AM PDT
Blake Robbins (AP Photo/WTXF Fox 29)

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PHILADELPHIA (AP) - A suburban school district secretly captured at least 56,000 webcam photographs and screen shots from laptops issued to high school students, its lawyer acknowledged Monday.

"It's clear there were students who were likely captured in their homes," said lawyer Henry Hockeimer, who represents the Lower Merion School District.

None of the images, captured by a tracking program to find missing computers, appeared to be salacious or inappropriate, he said. The district said it remotely activated the tracking software to find 80 missing laptops in the past two years.

The Philadelphia Inquirer first reported Monday on the large number of images recovered from school servers by forensic computer experts, who were hired after student Blake Robbins filed suit over the tracking practice.

Robbins still doesn't know why the district deployed the software tracking program on his computer, as he had not reported it lost or stolen, his lawyer said.

The FBI has opened a criminal investigation into possible wiretap violations by the district, and U.S. Sen. Arlen Specter, of Pennsylvania, has introduced a bill to include webcam surveillance under the federal wiretap statute.

Read More (http://www.bakersfieldnow.com/news/national/91610024.html)

More at link.

Arlen Specter clearly does NOT have the appropriate solution here. Should his idea become "law" then would not a parent keeping their eye on a 'nanny-cam' to ensure the safety and well-being of their children thus become a federal criminal by virtue of using a webcam to monitor the activities within their own home?

If the government feels an overwhelming need to get involved in this, then any legislation needs to be at the STATE level (not Federal) and should specifically address a ban on the monitoring of property not under the control of the monitor, or on data not being used for official purposes. For example, if the laptop is indeed school property, they do have a right to track it in the event of theft, and like schools everywhere, they do have a right to ensure that it is being used for school work -- but that only during actual school hours, not at lunch and not between periods.

The complex nature of that is why it needs to be more local and not Federal at all.

Clearly, it should be punishable to spy on a student at home, beyond school hours. Clearly, it should be punishable to monitor computer activities whenever the student is not actually inside an active classroom, and the only reason such monitoring WOULD be allowed is on account of the device actually being school property. So that could be avoided simply by getting your own laptop that the school does not control.

The behavior of the school here is despicable. The response of Arlen Specter is wrong-headed and creates many, many more problems than it solves.

GunnyFreedom
04-21-2010, 03:29 AM
thought this was interesting...

MN Patriot
04-21-2010, 04:21 AM
The surveillance society we are becoming will open up all kinds of issues. But ultimately people will allow government to snoop on them because they seem to want security rather than freedom.

Almighty glorious government will be able catch all kinds of criminals if we just allow cameras and monitors to watch us 24/7.