School used student laptop webcams to spy on students.

[Hobbes]

School used student laptop webcams to spy on them at school and home
By Cory Doctorow at 11:49 PM February 17, 2010

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.

http://www.boingboing.net/2010/02/17...d-student.html
http://gizmodo.com/5474614/school-sp...laptop-cameras

Who the hell thought this was a good idea?

[archibaldcrane]

Oh god that's fucking awesome. I wonder how much CP they gathered via video surveillance?

[Qalbert]

Did you honestly expect any better from America's shitty education system?

[Seanr]

incoming shit storm

[Warudo Ecksu]

well now that was entirely illegal. that school is fucked

[*Shinzon*]

No shit, say peace to your federally funded laptops kids. The patriot act doesn't apply to school administrators, weeeeee.

[ZarakiKujata]

I for one will support Leif railing against public education in this thread

[Baha]

Remote access to teenagers laptop webcams? Great idea!
Trying to use evidence obtained by said webcams for something he did at home though... That's just silly.

[Kilhart]

Don't most laptop webcams have a light that turns on when the camera is active? Or did they disable that <_<

[BerenTebogo]

Couldn't just fap in peace huh? Had to try to be the big bad principle.

[AidenCarby]

Imagine how many kids were caught fapping to internet porn lol.

[Qalbert]

principal*

[Spoony Bob]

He sure ain't my pal anymore.

Unless he shares the recordings.

[BerenTebogo]

principal*

I blame being in a party.

[Baelorn]

Don't most laptop webcams have a light that turns on when the camera is active? Or did they disable that <_<

As a recent graduate of Harriton, I thought I could shed some light on the situation. These laptops were 2.0ghz 2gb Macbooks issued out to all the students for the entire year to do whatever they wanted and this was the 2nd year of the program. The webcam couldn't be disabled due through tough tough security settings. Occasionally we would notice that the green light was on from time to time but we just figured that it was glitching out as some macbooks do sometimes. Some few covered it up with tape and post its because they thought the IT guys were watching them.

From Digg comments...assuming he isn't full of shit(entirely possible).

[archibaldcrane]

Should we assume these laptops all had some sort of netnanny installed on them as well, hindering porn viewing?

I'd have to assume they were pretty locked down.

[Mertron]

im ok with this

because it didnt happen to me

where are the white teenage women at

[Khajit]

Who cares? They're all future suicide plane bombers anyway.

[Klutz]

If someone was spying on me I'd be turned on.

[Karbuncle]

If someone was spying on me I'd be turned on.

Isn't that a coincidence?

/cameraon