School used laptop webcams to spy on kids at home
POSTED BY: piratenews
UPDATED: Tuesday, October 12, 2010 09:49
VIEWED: 9642
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School Used Student Laptop Webcams to Spy on Them at School and Home
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.
Robbins v. Lower Merion School District
http://craphound.com/robbins17.pdf
http://www.boingboing.net/2010/02/17/school-used-student.html
http://cryptogon.com/?p=13851
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Has it never occurred to anyone to put a piece of electrical tape over the damn camera?
Not that that makes it okay for anyone to be spying on you this way, but it might help a bit.
Mike
Work is the curse of the Drinking Class.
- Oscar Wilde
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Quote:
Originally posted by Kwicko:
Has it never occurred to anyone to put a piece of electrical tape over the damn camera?
Not that that makes it okay for anyone to be spying on you this way, but it might help a bit.
According to the lawsuit, the kids are also punished for simply doing "privacy tricks" like that, or using proxy servers like Proxify.com.
It's 1984 all over again.
When I was a kid, we only had eyeballs to worry about. And guns in school were never a problem. I know, because every kid in my school was required to carry a military assault rifle in class.
But at least the pedophiles can now watch the kids undress in the comfort of their own homes. That's progress!
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Get a warrant and seize the office and home computers of the administrators responsible, and I will *GUARANTEE* you that you'll make at least one bust over it, that's a damned common problem with this bullshit no one wants to admit, even if PN does get excessive about it.
My nieces school hadda quietly (and from what I hear, only temporarily) remove the cameras from the girls bathrooms, and one administrator, for similar reasons after the sumbitch got caught yankin it behind his desk, grrrr.
I take after my mother that way, you mess with one of MY kids (even if they ain't biologically "mine") and you're obviously in the wrong, it don't matter how important you think you are, fuck the lawsuit, it's time for some wall-to-wall counselling!
I shall forever treasure the memory of first discovering that, some time in middle school where an assistant administrator decided to "adjust my attitude" just prior to a parent teacher conference, since he made some nasty commentary about my mother (who worked 14 hour days, plus an hour plus commute!) being late, and I called him up short on it...
His "attitude adjustment" involved him lifting me off the ground by my collar and screaming profanity and abuse in my face, with a side order of race-baiting.
My mother, hearing this from the door of the office lobby, took that door open with a bang, damned near off the hinges, and one second later the loudest sound in that room was the snap-click of the eight inch switchblade in her hand being deployed.
(You have NO IDEA how bad the knowledge she even HAD something like that, much less *obviously* knew damned well how to use it, freaked me out.)
Whatever she said to him, I missed cause I was so utterly, totally shocked by the whole concept of my *mother* storming in like an angry valkyrie, ready and willing to cut this guy into bait - I was more scared of her maybe DOIN that, than I ever was of him - he knew the rules, he knew you did not lay hands on me, EVER, and he broke em...
Anyways, he quit over that, it wasn't JUST that, but it was kinda the last straw, since he was on the verge of bein fired anyways, so I figure he had some encouragement.
None of em at THAT school ever tried such bullshit again, and as for me, it took well over a month to stop going into nervous twitches every time she reached in her purse for something...
And more like THREE before I dared mouth off to her about anything.
It wouldn't have wigged me out so if I didn't know her as one of the most strait-laced, calm, unflappable people I'd ever met, I mean, she dealt with *me*, yanno ?
Anyhows, I guess the apple didn't fall *that* far from the tree, when it comes to it, cause someone pulled a stunt like this one on one of "my" kids...
I'd be playin cubicle-divider dominos with the sumbitch, and quick like.
(Which wouldn't wig "my" kids out so much as completely embarrass them with my "barbarity" - something they're very well aware of and tend to lecture ME about.. *eyeroll* )
-F
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Quote:
Has it never occurred to anyone to put a piece of electrical tape over the damn camera?
Not that that makes it okay for anyone to be spying on you this way, but it might help a bit.
It certainly never occurred to anyone at the SCHOOL, the ones who handed out these laptops in the first place.
Would THAT be too much to expect from those who are in charge of teaching the children?
Director: Bureau of Bigfoot Affairs
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School Spycams Case Explodes As Feds Initiate Probe
http://www.eweek.com/c/a/Security/FBI-Investigates-Webcam-Spy-Allegati
ons-Against-School-451724/
http://www.cnn.com/2010/CRIME/02/20/laptop.suit/index.html
http://www.prisonplanet.com/school-spycams-case-explodes-as-feds-initi
ate-probe.html
While the school district denies it ever used the tracking software for anything other than looking for stolen computers, it seems other schools across the country are actively using the same or similar technology to monitor students.
The following clip is from PBS FRONTLINE: Digital Nation: Life on the Virtual Frontier, broadcast earlier this month. The clip is from segment 4 of the show titled Teaching with Technology.
It effectively demonstrates the technology that has caused uproar in the Lower Merion case.
The Assistant Principal of the featured high school demonstrates how he effectively spies on students by remotely accessing cameras in their laptops. He monitors their activity and even takes pictures of them, much to his own amusement:
The entire show PBS show can be found here:
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/digitalnation/view/
Quote:
Tennessee school adminstrators sued for videotaping naked girls in locker room
In 2002, the Overton County (Tenn.) School Board approved a plan to install video surveillance equipment throughout Livingston Middle School (LMS). The school board ordered the director of schools, William Needham, to oversee the project. Needham, in turn, assigned the job to LMS principal Melinda Beaty, who delegated the job to assistant principal Robert Jolley.
In July 2002, Jolley had cameras installed throughout the school in areas facing exterior doors, in hallways leading to exterior doors, and in the boys' and girls' locker rooms. The images captured by the cameras were transmitted to a computer in Jolley's office, and displayed and stored on the computer's hard drive. In September 2002, Jolley discovered that the locker room cameras were videotaping areas in which students routinely dressed for athletic activities and immediately notified Beaty of the situation. No action, however, was taken to remove the cameras until January 2003.
When the videotaping was discovered, a group of parents filed suit under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 against the school board, Needham, Beaty and Jolley. In their suit, the parents alleged that school officials violated the students' constitutional right to privacy by installing and operating video surveillance equipment in the boys' and girls' locker rooms and by viewing and retaining the recorded images.
School officials moved for summary judgment on the grounds of qualified immunity, under which public officials are entitled to be dismissed from a lawsuit if they can show that they did not violate any federal statutory or constitutional rights that were "clearly established" at the time of the alleged misconduct. The public policy behind qualified immunity is that if government officials were not sometimes given a pass for violating a citizen's constitutional rights, officials would be undesirably inhibited in exercising their duties for fear of personal liability if they made a mistake that injured someone.
In determining whether school officials were entitled to qualified immunity, the Sixth Circuit Court started by reviewing whether the students' Fourth Amendment guarantee against unreasonable searches encompassed the right not to be videotaped while dressing and undressing in school locker rooms. In ruling that such a right was protected, the court held that a search is justified only when there are reasonable grounds for suspecting that it will garner evidence that a student has violated or is violating the law or school rules, or is in imminent danger of injury on school premises.
Since the stated purpose of setting up video surveillance equipment throughout LMS was for the sake of improving security, the court ruled that the installation of cameras throughout the school in areNOTIFY: N | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
Quote:
Originally posted by piratenews:
It's 1984 all over again.
If only...
Ronald Reagan, 49 States, 525 electoral votes.
Walterrack Mondalebama, 1 State (by 3700 votes) + DC, 10 electoral votes.
Desmund Tutu got the Nobel Peace Prize for his "role as a unifying leader figure in the campaign to resolve the problem of apartheid in South Africa."
USS Alabama, Ohio Class Balistic Missile Submarine was launched carrying 24 SLBM nuclear missiles and capable of delivering more firepower in one strike the ever delivered in the entire history of war...not to mention was the setting for the movie Crimson Tide.
Born, Scarlett Johansson and Lebron James.
23rd Olympiad in LA. Carl Lewis. Mary Lou Retton. Michael Jordan led an 'future Dream Team' to gold.
"Where's the beef?"
Hulk Hogan defeats the Iron Sheik to win his first WWF title.
TV: Night Court, Airwolf, Punky Brewster (PN's favorite show, he likes old men and little girls), Cosby Show, V, Macintosh computers...
Raiders win Super Bowl. Tiger take the Series.
Not to mention Marc Garneau, the first Cannuck in orbit.
Good year.
H
"Hero. I have come to respect you." "I am forced to agree with Hero here."- Chrisisall, 2009.
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Quote:
Originally posted by piratenews:
According to the lawsuit, the kids are also punished for simply doing "privacy tricks" like that, or using proxy servers like Proxify.com.
Which is generally spelled out in the agreement they sign to use the computers. Boo-effin-hoo.
Quote:
When I was a kid....
The world changes, wear a cup.
Quote:
But at least the pedophiles can now watch the kids undress in the comfort of their own homes. That's progress!
And back to your regularly scheduled PN idiocy....
"I thoroughly disapprove of duels. If a man should challenge me, I would take him kindly and forgivingly by the hand and lead him to a quiet place and kill him."
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Quote:
Originally posted by Storymark:Quote:
Originally posted by piratenews:
According to the lawsuit, the kids are also punished for simply doing "privacy tricks" like that, or using proxy servers like Proxify.com.
Which is generally spelled out in the agreement they sign to use the computers. Boo-effin-hoo.
Kids are below the age of consent to contracts. Contract Law 101.
Same for statutory rape, which teachers are convicted of everyday.
It's impossible to contract away your constitutionally guaranteed rights, since the constitutions are contracts to forbid govt have having that authority. Constitutional Law 101.
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Quote:
Originally posted by Hero:Quote:
Originally posted by piratenews:
It's 1984 all over again.
If only...
Ronald Reagan, 49 States, 525 electoral votes.
Walterrack Mondalebama, 1 State (by 3700 votes) + DC, 10 electoral votes.
Desmund Tutu got the Nobel Peace Prize for his "role as a unifying leader figure in the campaign to resolve the problem of apartheid in South Africa."
In 1980 Reagan/Bush won by treason in Iran-Contra, by paying Iran to raid the US embassy, kidnap the hostages, and refuse to release them until the exact minute Reagan/Bush were inaugurated, plus Lt Col Oliver North sabotaged President Carter's military rescue team, so they all crashed and burned in a desert sand storm. Then Bush's cousin John Hinkley Jr (allegedly) shot Reagan, making Bush Sr president 8 years early.
South Africa is now a bankrupt Communist nation of anarchy, slavery and genocide, ruled by the Kosher Nostra and its blood diamond cartel.
VP Mondale was paid to lose as controlled opposition, and was no competition to the CIA's coups d'etat in USA. Or he could have arrested Reagan/Bush when Carter was still president, or filed felony charges during the Iran-Contra investigation. Oh that's right, dozens of Reagan/Bush White House staff were found guilty of felonies during Iran Contra. Bush Sr pardoned all of them (who weren't already assassinated), and was promoted to Knight of the British Empire by his cousin the German Queen of England.
Quote:
The UK agency in charge of IT in UK schools has insisted there is no chance of the government's free laptops program exposing the bedroom activities of British students.
The calming words for British parents comes after a US school district was sued for allegedly spying on a student in his bedroom via the webcam on his school supplied laptop.
The proud boast of Lower Merrion School District in Philadelphia is that it gives every one of their 1,800 high-schoolers laptop computers, to "ensure that all students have 24/7 access to school-based resources."
The catch – which isn’t even mentioned in the small print – is that whilst pupils are watching their laptops, their school may be watching them. This rather sinister twist to the tale came to light when the parents of student Blake Robbins were told by an official of Harriton High School last November that their son had been involved in "improper behavior in his home."
There are no further details of what this improper behaviour might constitute – and readers must draw their own conclusions as to the sort of behaviour a teenage school student might indulge in, if left alone in his bedroom with a PC.
However, what startled and then outraged Blake’s parents was the evidence provided: a photo of their son engaged in the "improper behaviour" cited, taken not on any friend’s camera – but by the webcam on the free school laptop.
Subsequent investigation revealed that this webcam could be – and in this case, was – activated remotely by persons working for the school.
According to the Robbins family, an assistant principal at Harriton High, Lindy Matsko, confirmed that the school district "in fact has the ability to remotely activate the Webcam contained in a student's personal laptop computer issued by the school district at any time it chose, and to view and capture whatever images were in front of the Webcam."
The Robbins family have reacted by talking to their lawyers – and this week they issued suit (pdf) against the school district, its board of governors, and Christopher McGinley, the Superintendent of the district.
They allege a veritable shopping list of wrongdoing, including not only breaches of the Fourth Amendment of the United States Constitution, but also the Electronic Communication Privacy Act, the Computer Fraud Abuse Act, the Stored Communications Act, s1983 of the Civil Rights Act, the Pennsylvania Wiretapping and Electronic Surveillance Act, as well as Pennsylvania common law.
The school district has today responded robustly, claiming that the laptopsNOTIFY: N | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME