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PA School Defends Web-Cam Spying As Security Measure, Denies Misuse

Posted by timothy on from the great-and-powerful-oz's-big-lie-technique dept.

tekgoblin writes "The Lower Merion School District of Pennsylvania was recently accused of privacy invasion. Now the school has released an official response to the allegations. According to the school, the security feature was installed in the laptops as an anti-theft device and was not intended to invade privacy. The software that was installed would take a photo of the person using the laptop after it was stolen to give to the authorities. Now this may be what it was intended for, but it seems that someone didn't get the memo." The district's claim that it "has not used the tracking feature or web cam for any other purpose or in any other manner whatsoever" doesn't square with the allegations which set off this whole storm. And if there was nothing wrong with it, why does the school say it won't start using the snooping feature again without "express written notification to all students and families"?

7 of 364 comments (clear)

  1. In-home Reprimand by Luthair · · Score: 5, Interesting

    So then why was a student reprimanded for their in home behaviour with a picture from the webcam used as evidence?

    1. Re:In-home Reprimand by wisnoskij · · Score: 4, Interesting

      and why were they watching in the first place?

      --
      Troll is not a replacement for I disagree.
    2. Re:In-home Reprimand by Ethanol-fueled · · Score: 4, Interesting

      I bet that some kids were observed nude or even jacking off, but the observers never reported it because they'd be admitting to viewing child porn.

      Semi-related story: when I was in high school, I thought it would be funny to use my student I.D. to crush my Sweet tarts into a fine powder and chop them up like lines of cocaine. My music teacher sent me to the counselor's office even though he knew what the powder was. The counselor asked me how I knew how to do that, and I told her I saw it in the move South Central (which was true).

      I had always hoped that naive, alarmist authorities were only a high school thing. Then bam, 9/11, and here we are.

    3. Re:In-home Reprimand by Enderandrew · · Score: 4, Interesting

      I really think the whole case hinges on this point.

      They claim they never once turned on the software unless a laptop was reported stolen. Yet if they did in fact punish a student for in-home behavior on a non-stolen laptop, then they're clearly caught in a lie.

      And even if the intent was merely an anti-theft solution, I think there is still a civil suit worth pursuing (if not criminal charges) if the software was not disclosed.

      --
      http://blindscribblings.com - Tasty pop-culture in conceptual fashion.
  2. One possibility by Phroggy · · Score: 5, Interesting

    There's one way the school could be telling the truth about this. They didn't say this explicitly, so it's not clear, but:

    The lawsuit alleges that the school accused the student of inappropriate behavior. That behavior could have been reporting his laptop as "stolen", then continuing to use it. The school maintains that they only use the webcams to take a still photo when a laptop has been reported stolen, to aid in recovering it. If the laptop was reported stolen, the school took a picture, they saw that the student who reported it was the one using it, and they confronted the student with this evidence, that would explain both the lawsuit and the school's position.

    Sort of odd that the school's response wouldn't explain that, if that is indeed what happened. But people tend to omit important details like that when there's a lawsuit pending, on advice of counsel...

    --
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  3. Re:the school already is lying by tftp · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Why does it not occur to you that perhaps the student took the photo and emailed it to their buddies?

    How would the student know that webcams can be remotely activated? Besides, I believe most of the accusation, picture and all, comes from the school administrator.

    My best guess is that the system was installed indeed to find lost laptops. However there were no locks, safeguards or anything, so busybody teachers took it upon themselves to monitor students whenever they feel to it. The district claims that only two IT people were authorized to monitor, however how hard is it for an IT guy to tell the URL and the password to a teacher? Teachers were seen as gods until now, or a step above that.

  4. Re:the school already is lying by slyfox · · Score: 4, Interesting

    A student has been quoted as saying:

    "Frequently, the green lights next to our iSight webcams will turn on. The school district claims that this is just a glitch. We are all doubting this now."

    http://thelede.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/02/19/school-accused-of-using-webcam-to-photograph-student-at-home/

    The lawsuit filed in court states:

    "[The student] was at home using a school issued laptop that was neither reported lost nor stolen when his image was captured by Defendants without his or his parents' permission and while he was at home."

    http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/print/9159778/Irate_parents_in_Pa._say_schools_use_peeping_tom_technology_

    If this is true, sounds pretty damning to me.