DawgTalkers.net Forums DawgTalk Tailgate Forum School spied on students via webcams

I have not stated its OK to video tape people, I stated it is ok to monitor laptop computers remotely if they are owned by another person, company, or entity and are being used, rented, or leased by the person using it.

I think video taping is taking things a bit far, however, using something like VNC to see what the user is looking at is perfectly reasonable when using leased, loaned, or rented equipment as long as its made a point to the user up front.

besides, is it not the users responsibility to secure their own connection and do security audits of systems they put on their internet connection?

NRTU,

Just my 2 cents, I don't agree with the laptops taking still images. To the arguments about being able to do what you want with your own property, that doesn't fly in this case. The DVR argument is on the money, there is no reason to suspect that the electronic devices will be photographing you, so as such, the individuals had a reasonable expectation of privacy which was breached.

Not to mention, how good is a still image from a laptop web cam at helping track down a stolen laptop? That's really about the worst way to track down a laptop. It sounds a little fishy to me, or just completely stupid.

Being that this story seemed to appear and then disappear just as fast, I go with the idea that the media blew this one up into more that it ever really was.

FBI enters case of a school's alleged spying using laptop Web cams

The FBI has now entered the case involving allegations that a suburban Philadelphia school district spied on students using remotely activated Web cams embedded in the laptops issued to students.

The story broke last week when the parents of one 15-year-old student at Harriton High School accused the district of illegal spying.

The Philadelphia Inquirer reports that the FBI is now involved in the case as is the Montgomery County District Attorney's Office.

The Lower Merton School District said last week that the laptops contained a security feature to be activated only if a laptop was missing or stolen. In such cases, the district said, the process involved taking only a single image of the operator and the operator's screen.

It said the feature had never been improperly used, but added that it had now deactivated the security feature.

The lawsuit, filed on behalf of Blake Robbins, claimed that he was reprimanded by an assistant principal for "improper behavior in his home" that was captured by the laptop camera.

Robbins told reporters, the Inquirer says, that the school official mistook Mike & Ike candies he was holding for illegal pills, and accused him of selling drugs.

The Washington Post reports that lawyers for Robbins plan to ask a federal court to stop the school from erasing any images captured by the Web cams.

USAToday article

Quote:

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To the arguments about being able to do what you want with your own property, that doesn't fly in this case. The DVR argument is on the money, there is no reason to suspect that the electronic devices will be photographing you, so as such, the individuals had a reasonable expectation of privacy which was breached.

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So what if that information was disclaimed when the laptop was given to the student?

But now based on what Michelle posted...

Quote:

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The Lower Merton School District said last week that the laptops contained a security feature to be activated only if a laptop was missing or stolen. In such cases, the district said, the process involved taking only a single image of the operator and the operator's screen.

It said the feature had never been improperly used, but added that it had now deactivated the security feature.

The lawsuit, filed on behalf of Blake Robbins, claimed that he was reprimanded by an assistant principal for "improper behavior in his home" that was captured by the laptop camera.

Robbins told reporters, the Inquirer says, that the school official mistook Mike & Ike candies he was holding for illegal pills, and accused him of selling drugs.

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Now, if it's only to be used when the laptop is missing or stolen.. AND it's never been improperly used... THEN why was it taking pictures of him in his home where the laptop was neither missing or stolen? Seems inconsistent to me...

Right. Like I said earlier, the school lied. They are going down unless they've already deleted all the pictures they took illegally.

just another article...

web page

FBI, grand jury now probing high school's webcam spying (Updated)
By Jacqui Cheng | Last updated February 22, 2010 11:57 AM

The furor over the Harriton High School webcam spying caper continues to grow. The Federal Bureau of Investigation is now investigating whether the school broke any federal wiretap laws when it remotely spied on a student at home, an anonymous official told the Associated Press. A federal grand jury has also subpoenaed the school for records related to the so-called "security" measures implemented on the laptops that allowed officials to activate the webcams to see people using them, according to the Philadelphia Inquirer.

The Lower Merion School District (LMSD) has also started talking to the press about the incident. Spokesman Doug Young told the AP that the school had activated the webcams on the school-issued laptops 42 times over the last year or so, but never to spy on the students. LMSD had said on Friday - when it decided to indefinitely suspend the practice - that the feature was there solely for security purposes in order to locate lost or stolen laptops.

With more than 2,300 of these laptops issued across the district, it's impractical to assume that every student was in danger of being spied on. However, it's clear that LMSD knows where it ran afoul: by not letting parents know about the feature when having them sign the paperwork for the computers. "There was no specific notification given that described the security feature," Young told the Inquirer. "That notice should have been given, and we regret not giving it. That... was a significant mistake."

A "significant mistake" barely describes the situation now that there's not only a lawsuit, but the FBI is also involved. As of Monday morning, the school's lawyers are being called to court so a judge can decide whether to bar the school from removing data from any of the 2,300 laptops.

The students all have their pet theories on what's really going on, too. On Friday, we quoted one former Harriton High School student (who had originally posted his comments on Digg) who said he and his friends noticed the webcam's green light come on "from time to time," and some students worried that the school's IT admins had been spying on them. Another current student e-mailed Ars to say that the light does turn on occasionally, but only after a reboot —something he assumes to be a "Mac hardware glitch" (one that none of us on staff have ever experienced on our Macs; perhaps it could be a glitch of the software used to remotely access the laptops).

The current student did say, however, that the entire student population has been aware of the school's ability to turn on the webcams for quite some time due to "a widely circulated story that one of our laptops ended up in Pakistan, and they were taking pictures of the current owner." How this information never managed to make it to any of the parents is a mystery, and we are still left wondering what student Blake J. Robbins could have been doing in front of his MacBook to warrant being disciplined for "improper behavior."

Update: Blake Robbins' attorney spoke to NBC Philadelphia (video link) and claims the school "caught" Robbins with two Mike & Ike candies in his hand, which look like pills. The student apparently eats the candies "religiously" and the school overreacted to the image.