School used laptop webcams to spy on kids at home
POSTED BY: piratenews
UPDATED: Tuesday, October 12, 2010 09:49
VIEWED: 9642
PAGE 7 of 8
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I just haven't been commenting cause I am not sure of the point of debating civil rights with folk who think they can pick and choose who gets em and how to use em.
BAZINGA!
He shoots, he scores.
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UPDATE.
The school has apparently riled the community into a nice little lynch mob by crying and whining about how much money their own criminal behavior is going to cost.
http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9173659/Pa._school_spy_case_spa
rks_fight_over_money
I'm sorry, that's blaming the victim, in spades, and carries the same reek about it as billing a rape victim for the prosecutors time.
Those dumbasses OUGHT to be coming down on the school with both boots, since it was the schools criminal action which will result in any loss, but no, instead they're practically ready to lynch Blake and his family on command - and folks say schools don't indoctrinate, pish...
Were *I* their lawyer, I would INCREASE the settlement demands to compensate for moving expenses to a new school district since the school and communities behavior has rendered their current region a hostile environment.
AND consider smacking a harrassment/incitement charge on the litany against them as well.
Said lawyer wanted to ask some questions of the IT personnel as well, likely about why any kind of theft-tracking software would be set up to delete records of it's own use on the server end, and exactly how that was supposed to make sense, but a motion is in progress last I heard to quash the subpeano.
Remember folks, it's not the crime, it's the coverup!
And be DAMNED to the useful idiots that help it along!
-Frem
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UPDATE
It's not the crime, it's the coverup.
And the lies, oh the lies...
http://www.philly.com/philly/news/homepage/88748377.html?viewAll=y
Oh where to even start.
Well, firstoff.
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"We did have a theft," she said. "And we have a way we can track them. . . .
"There were six that were taken. All but one came back."
That's right, ONE, as in single, as in only.
And there's obviously been a few I-can't-find-my-laptop issues, HOWEVER..
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The district has said it turned on the system 42 times this academic year, but won't say how often it used the tracking device in the previous two years - or how many pictures were collected.
More and more that "42 times" sounds like it was pulled out of someones ass to avoid saying "I don't know", cause that's the fact, they DON'T know, and here's the proof of that.
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Parents may never know: Those computer files are purged before each school year, according to sources.
This after saying it purged after use, well, it's clear the data was purged, and why the hell would you do that regarding theft tracking ?
It makes no sense.
Then there's the lies about the capabilites.
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Once it was on, the feature kept recording information until it was turned off. Every 15 minutes, as long as the computer was on, open, and connected to the Internet, the program did three things. It recorded the computer's Internet address, captured a screen image, and snapped a Web cam photo.
So, despite all denials, they did have screenshots, if not keylogs, and it's sounding more and more like a VPN setup, which is prettymuch the only way you could do this, and to deny it in the face of someone technically competent enough to understand that is insulting.
Oh, and let's point out the Lower Merion PD's involvement.
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It's not clear who in the Lower Merion schools had access to the Web cam photos. In a memo explaining LANrev to his fellow techs, Perbix said that, while only he and Cafiero could turn the system on, the information collected was "visible to you if the computer is one you can normally view."
"We also can make these reports available via a Web site to local police who can analyze the information and act upon it," he wrote.
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That's what happened in the fall of 2008 when six laptops were stolen from the Harriton locker room during a gym class.
Lower Merion police, with an assist from the regional FBI computer lab in Radnor, tracked down five of the computers and arrested the culprit - another student, sources said.
The sixth was tracked to Pakistan.
As time went on, the schools reported thefts to the police nearly two dozen times; three times, juveniles were charged, the sources said. In an additional half-dozen cases, laptops reported stolen turned out to be merely misplaced, the sources said.
Pictures were routinely turned over to police, along with the computer's Internet address.
On his blog, "Best Thing Since Sliced Bread," Perbix recounted an incident in which police recovered a stolen laptop that was sending back its Internet location.
"The police went to the house and were befuddled to find out the people we knew had the laptop was not the family that lived there," Perbix wrote, cautioning people to secure their home wireless network.
"Well, we eventually found out that they were the neighboring house and were borrowing the unsecured WiFi."
Joseph Daly, who retired in 2009 as Lower Merion police superintendent, said he never knew that his department was being furnished with pictures snapped from students' laptops.
I call bullshit, he knew, he HAD to know, given that when you dig deep enough into the actual technical mechanics *and then call in the FBI for an assist* how the hell can you NOT know ?
He just wants to dodge the lawsuit bullet, all that is.
Then there was the absolute incompetence of how this was managed.
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A review shows that Lower Merion administrators blew past warnings of trouble and missed obvious opportunities toNOTIFY: N | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
UPDATE:
Firstoff, the astroturfed so-called parents group opposing Blake, well, 50% of it's founding members, Bob and Tom there, are employed by the local Gov, which represents a conflict of interest, and in light of that...
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Although Tom and Bob are elected officials, this matter has nothing whatsoever to do with any actions in those capacities for or on behalf of the Borough of Narberth or their representative roles. Tom and Bob, as Larry and Michael, are parents of high school children in LMSD and are solely and absolutely engaged in this effort as private citizens.
This little disclaimer of theirs reeks of the manure shovel.
And most interesting that there's some *other* seemingly unrelated problems regarding the behavior of Lower Merions Administration, including a lawsuit over that...
http://www.philly.com/philly/education/88890587.html
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Lower Merion school officials said last night that the district's insurance policy would cover "a significant portion" of the cost of a contentious and expensive 2009 lawsuit about redistricting.
And yet, if their insurance covers such things, then why the flame and blame at the Robbins family, ehe ?
Inquiring minds want to know.
And not just mine.
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According to news reports, two members of the Harrinton High student council heard about the spy cam feature and approached school principal Steven R. Kline last year. Per the Philadelphia Inquirer:
When Kline confirmed it, students told him they were worried about privacy violations and asked about other types of monitoring. But nothing happened -- not even after the students returned for a follow-up visit, according to other council members who were briefed afterward.
(from Networkworld.com)
So the students, via the student council, tried to get the matter addressed, and predictably, got the complete brushoff, despite raising some very valid concerns, and this is a great part of WHY students see these toothless, helpless student councils as naught more than the pacification device they are in truth - till those councils have some *teeth* it's all just a sham.
(And you know full and well there's a ringer to two out there making helpful little "suggestions" by now, don't you ?)
Oh, and on a side note to this whole KIND of ridiculousness, I did mention earlier some problems with the school my niece goes to and cameras in the bathrooms (which were removed after that incident, and as yet have not been replaced) yes ?
Seems even THAT level of insanity has caught on.
ACLU considering lawsuit over fake cameras installed in Crestwood Middle School bathrooms
http://www.palmbeachpost.com/news/schools/parents-object-after-crestwo
od-middle-school-principal-puts-429218.html
Seriously, all too many of the folk running schools these days are just plain fekkin nuts, what kinda rocks you gotta have between your ears to think this kind of intrusive-abusive crap is a good idea ?
And it all rolls right back to the broken, idiotic, chain-of-abuse formenting force-resistance-more-force model of idiot authoritarians, only with surveillence instead of violence, but at the root it's the same goddamn thing, instead of trying to reach out to these kids, instead they lock em down tighter and tighter, and squeeze, and squeeze, and the harder the kids fight back, the harder they squeeze, and is it any wonder that some of em snap ?
But that worm is turning, between the demise of the hellcamps and the convenient disposal of those who resist, to ritalin-resistant kids*, and a general social awakening in regards to how we treat kids, the day of the authoritarians is drawing to an end, and I sincerely hope to see night fall upon them.
-Frem
*This was gonna happen, when mommy and daddy were practically raised on it, nature is *going* to lend a hand, it's kinda like how when you try to poison critters, how in two, three generations they're seasoning their food with your poison - well, it's the same basic principle here, that's not to say there are not actual medical cases wh
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UPDATE
Motion to Quash denied, Cafiero to be deposed today.
http://www.philly.com/philly/business/technology/20100405_ap_paschoolo
fficialordereddeposedinwebcamcase.html
Also: as I suspected, there was something personal against the Robbins family pre-dating this case and the whole laptop bullshit was just one more excuse to try and find something to hang on them over the usual smalltown harper valley PTA bullshit.
I can't spill the source, but if you follow this case up and take careful note of the commentary in various places, it'll lead you to who the primary guilty parties behind the wannabe lynch mob are, AND hint at what their reasons are besides.
So this was never about the laptop, or privacy, so much as a community in concert with the school system, trying to bully a family for not toeing the social "line" - more or less school bullying taken one step further and with official involvement, and Blake as an inconvenient casualty of folks who have issues with his parents.
Do you really think this type of bullying STOPS when the bullies and their cronies and victims graduate ?
Nope, those "pillars of the community" then often proceed to do it from positions of authority and under cover of law when they are adults, and it goes on, sometimes even passed down generationally into a blood feud, appalacian hills style...
But more often the bullies wind up local politicians and sherrifs - and then onward and upward in a system that rewards such sociopathy with ever more increasing amounts of power.
And that, right there, is why I revile Sarah Palin, cause she is the examplar of a system which rewards the bad actors of a society.
As for Lower Merion - they've got our teeth in their ankle, and once that happens, we do *NOT* let go.
-Frem
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LOOK OUT!!! I clicked on your link, Frem, and it crashed my Exporer immediately!
As to the rest, huzzah! Glad to hear the good news.Quote:
And that, right there, is why I revile Sarah Palin, cause she is the examplar of a system which rewards the bad actors of a societyQuote:
Right on.
And 
, we need more like you, as I'm always saying!
"I'm just right. Kinda like the sun rising in the east and the world being round...its not a need its just the way it is." The Delusional "Hero", 3/1/10
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Most likely the flash-based advert window at the bottom - mine blocks those on automatic, but when I went back and checked, the Iframe ads worked ok, but the flash one was kinda iffy...
That kinda crap is why I consider it their own fault so many folks run with Adblock/Flashblock running, you almost have to, yanno ?
-F
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Annnd she takes the fifth.
http://www.philly.com/dailynews/local/20100410_Key_figure_in__Webcamga
te__invokes_Fifth.html
Not that, given all the contradictory and demonstrably false public statements she made, it was any kinda surprise, nor do I see it as an automatic admittance of guilt, that particular right exists for a damned good reason.
Thing is, given former public statements, prettymuch *anything* she says opens her up to perjury charges, even discussing the technical capability of the software - on top of which there's a pretty solid case for criminal conspiracy even if wiretapping law doesn't apply, and what with every member of that little clique now trying to shove the blame off onto someone else, no way in hell is she gonna open her mouth and volunteer to be the fall guy, especially since blowing the whistle would also end her career and make her a pariah in the industry no matter how justified it is, given how we treat whistleblowers in this country...
So what recorse does she really have but to remain silent and let the evidence be weighed on it's own merits - and I am damn curious to know if L3Comms forensic investigation was ever completed and what the results are, but we'll prolly never know.
Anyhows, they knew she'd be takin the fifth, what the legal strategem is here is by the questions they ask, encourage her to believe one or more of her co-conspirators has rolled her (a distinct and likely possibility) and by doing so encourage her to cut a deal implicating THEM instead.
Eventually, someone's gonna talk, someone *always* talks, even if, and especially when, they are not supposed to - as it's been said, the only way three people keep a secret is if two of em are dead.
Not that it matters too much now that prettymuch everyone in that whole blasted county knows the score, but knowing and having courtroom quality evidence are different things - and by not seizing the computer equipment immediately, and shitcanning (if they did, that's pretty vague) L3Comms investigation, I doubt there's gonna be enough to charge em with anything serious, but you never know... I do wonder about that deliberate delay, and the foot dragging of the Lower Merion PD, considering they lied about their own knowledge and involvement.
-Frem
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"Peeping Tom" Webcamgate: School laptops took thousands of images
"Emails suggest school administrator Carol Cafiero may be a voyeur. She invokes the Fifth Amendment to every question asked of her for downloading pictures to her home computer, including students naked in their homes."
Plaintiffs' motion for sanctions for contempt of court ordered discovery of school administrators' home computers
http://media.philly.com/documents/MotiontoCompel.pdf
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.
Those details, disclosed in the motion filed late Thursday in federal court by Robbins' attorney, offer a wider glimpse into the now-disabled program that spawned Robbins' lawsuit and has shined an international spotlight on the district.
In the filing, the Penn Valley family claims the district's records show that the controversial tracking system captured more than 400 photos and screen images from 15-year-old Blake Robbins' school-issued laptop during two weeks last fall, and that "thousands of webcam pictures and screen shots have been taken of numerous other students in their homes."
Robbins, a sophomore at Harriton High School, and his parents, Michael and Holly Robbins, contend e-mails turned over to them by the district suggest Cafiero "may be a voyeur" who might have viewed some of the photos on her home computer.
The motion says Cafiero, who has been placed on paid leave, has failed to turn that computer over to the plaintiffs despite a court order to do so, and asks a judge to sanction her.
Cafiero's lawyer Thursday night disputed the suggestion that his client had downloaded any such photos to her home computer. Lawyer Charles Mandracchia said Cafiero has cooperated with federal investigators and is willing to let technicians hired by the district examine her computer if the judge so orders.
He also said Robbins' attorney had never asked him for Cafiero's personal computer. "He's making this up because his case is falling apart," Mandracchia said.
Since the Robbinses sued in February, district officials have acknowledged that they activated the theft-tracking software on school-issued laptops 42 times since September, and a number of times in the previous school year - all in order to retrieve lost or stolen computers.
But they have stopped short of specifying how many students may have been photographed and monitored, or how often - information that could shed light on whether Robbins' experience was unique or common.
An attorney for the district declined to comment last night on the Robbinses' latest motion, except to say that a report due in a few weeks will spell out what the district's own investigation has found.
"To the extent there is any evidence of misuse of any images, that also will be disclosed," said the attorney, former federal prosecutor Henry E. Hockeimer Jr. "However, at this late stage of our investigation we are not aware of any such evidence."
The Robbinses' lawyer, Mark S. Haltzman, said the new details emerged in tens of thousands of pages of documents and e-mails the district turned over to him in recent weeks.
Three district employees have also given sworn depositions in the suit. A fourth, Ca
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Stop changing the thread title, John.
The big blowout question in the case is gonna be, of course, why didn't they turn the camera OFF once they had ascertained the location of the laptop ?
Well, for the reasons I mentioned above, the community and certain folk within were lookin for something, anything, to pick some shit with the Robbins family - ergo, this *was* intentional, malicious spying.
Goin down just as I called it, and how convenient they gave Cafiero time to purge her personal machine - and no mention of the conflict of interest of the school hiring the investigating attorney at a rate of several hundred bucks an hour as their defense council, neither.
Also quite telling is how the newsies, school district, and authorities never did ask the students for their input on the matter, as if they didn't matter - and despite having enough issues to have tried to address it via their powerless, token student council, I haven't seen much pressure from the other students either.
There's more reasons for that than just feeling powerless, cause of the generational issues I mentioned, but still we got a ways to go before youth in general starts growin the teeth they need to bite back at a world that kicks em every chance it gets.
-F
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