US School used student laptop webcams to spy on them at school & home

[mattx]

Plagurising 1984 ?

 

School used student laptop webcams to spy on them at school and home Boing Boing

[kmount]

And this is why people get bad names for themselves.... Stunned that a school would do such a thing.

 

Sigh.

[synaesthesia]

entirely terrible really. It wouldn't happen in the UK though, before it got anywhere near the media just about anyone involved in it at the school would be locked away/severely reprimanded for all sorts of offences. Those folks want shooting, what kids do at home is not the schools remit. It's nice for schools to show concern if they fear mistreatment or other nasties at home but this sort of action can't be justified in that manner.

[localzuk]

Wow, I really doubt the school district could win that one! Ridiculous that they thought that would even be remotely legal!!

[powdarrmonkey]

I really hope somebody's going to jail, but as usual.... well, we'll have to wait and see.

 

It'd be a pretty poor show if they just get a rap on the knuckles.

[pete]

I'm not sure what's worse - the spying or discipling the kid for a five-fingered-shuffle* in the privacy of his own home.

 

Jail them all. Which retarded sysadmin let this happen**?

 

 

*this is how I'm choosing to interpret "improper behavior".

**no-one pays me enough to break the law***

*** I am open to offers in excess of a million, with an insurance policy involving a tropical island hideaway in an non-extradition country.

[Dos_Box]

Isn't it (in the UK at least) illegal to sell software which does this?

[Jamman960]

I can see this kind of software being used in school or passed off as an anti-theft mechanism enabling the school to capture images of a laptop thief, I can't believe any school anywhere is stupid enough to try and enforce disapline at home though or use it on a regular basis without a good reason and without informing the laptop users

[AyatollahPies]

I'd be doing hard labour by now if they'd done that to me in my youth.

[localzuk]

Isn't it (in the UK at least) illegal to sell software which does this?

 

Not necessarily - otherwise many of our network admin tools would be illegal (as they *could* be used to do this). I think it comes down to intent at the point of sale under the Computer Misuse Act...

 

[A person is guilty of an offence] if he supplies or offers to supply any article believing that it is likely to be used to commit, or to assist in the commission of, [a hacking offence].

[ahuxham]

Heaven forbid any of the students performed their daily activities, like getting undressed, changed, having friends over, that makes the whole thing alot worse.

 

The article portrays them being protected against Pedo's forgetting that in turn they were the predatory ones, there could be and more than likely would have been inappropriate viewing of underage children.

 

Very shocking indeed.

[pete]

Response from school district: LMSD | Lower Merion School District Announcements

[localzuk]

Response from school district: LMSD | Lower Merion School District Announcements

 

So, they are not commenting on the claim that one of the kids was disciplined for their behaviour out of school... Interesting.

[pete]

So, they are not commenting on the claim that one of the kids was disciplined for their behaviour out of school... Interesting.

 

It's always possible that the school district are lying weasels scrambling to cover their arses. We all work (or have worked) in education and have seen some epicly retarded decisions made.

[Michael]

I think the fundamental problem is the students were not told or they were not required to sign an agreement accepting the terms of use for school property. I don't believe what they did was illegal, just unethical.

[MkII]

Isn't this akin to using securus to log what people get up to at home? It's tempting and possibly overly so to zealous types who are wanting to act in a child's interest but overstepping the mark.

[Michael]

And here's the latest on this story. Should be interesting to see how it develops!

[Arcath]

Using the webcam to find lost or stolen laptops is a silly idea, for one if its lost it would have to be on and connected to a wireless network (Although i dont find the idea of an american loosing a laptop connected to the wired network too far-fetched). The Lid also has to be open, so if its lost in its bag and on all they will get is pictures of the touch pad.

 

If it gets stolen then it will probably be formatted (to get past passwords etc...) so the program will dis appear.

 

The only way it stands any chance of being remotely useful is if they take regular pictures and keep them for a while.

[cookie_monster]

Feds open school spycam probe ? The Register

[russdev]

Update from the District

 

LMSD | Lower Merion School District Announcements

 

Russ

[TheITCrowd]

I actually grew up in the next district over. It was national news here in the US. That school district is the wealthiest in PA (and is part of the famous Main Line) and they provide Mac's to every student that they can take home.

[AngryTechnician]

Latest info today made this a whole lot worse:

 

School IT allegedly took "thousands" of pics in webcam case

 

Now, thanks to the court order asking the district to preserve evidence on all school-issued computers, the family has discovered more than 400 photos of Blake alone, not to mention the "thousands" more taken of other students in their homes. In addition to these photos of students doing private things in their rooms, the school district also allegedly took screenshots of IM conversations they were having with friends.

 

Even worse, the IT staff responsible for implementing and monitoring the student laptops seemingly viewed the whole thing as entertainment. The motion cites e-mails sent between staffers—one says the pictures were "like a little [Lower Merion School District] soap opera. Carol Cafiero, one of the administrators responsible for the program responded "I know. I love it!"

 

What is wrong with these people?! Do they have no professional standards whatsoever?

[jamesb]

Latest info today made this a whole lot worse:

 

School IT allegedly took "thousands" of pics in webcam case

 

 

 

What is wrong with these people?! Do they have no professional standards whatsoever?

 

I'd've thought that was pretty much self-evident.

 

This should be added to the required reading list methinks - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Little_Brother_(Cory_Doctorow_novel)

[localzuk]

The lot of them should be sacked, and prosecuted. They give school IT staff a bad name.

[PiqueABoo]

Do they have no professional standards whatsoever?

 

Allegedly not. Although I think school techs are a bit more inclined to be net-cops, this is really a fundamental either-or thing and some people just don't have that basic set of acceptable ethical standards. This kind of development was reasonably predictable because anyone with those standards wouldn't have got an instrusive system like that in the first place surely? If you really, really have to track potentially stolen laptops then what's wrong getting suitable authorisation and so on, then just flipping some virtual switch so the laptop tells you it's IP address next time it hits the net?

 

Aside: What do you say if some manglement bod walks up and asks you to closely track someone's network activity? Does it make a difference if the target is Student or Staff (where they might just be fishing for reasons to dismiss)? Do you have a policy pertaining to this area?

Edited April 19, 2010 by PiqueABoo
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