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PA High School Uses Laptops to Spy on Students at Home
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Author:  FarSky [ Thu Feb 18, 2010 3:05 pm ]
Post subject:  PA High School Uses Laptops to Spy on Students at Home

Wow.

Quote:
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 (PDF)

Author:  Ladas [ Thu Feb 18, 2010 3:10 pm ]
Post subject: 

Wow doesn't begin to express my reaction to this article, though this comment from the linked page comes close..

Quote:
My persistent civil libertarianism will cause an ulcer if I keep reading stories like this.

Author:  DFK! [ Thu Feb 18, 2010 3:19 pm ]
Post subject: 

I think we should automatically assume the school officials are pedophiles.

Author:  Stathol [ Thu Feb 18, 2010 3:21 pm ]
Post subject: 

Wow. This is one of those situations when you can't decide which part is the dumbest. Is it:

A) That the school district was spying on their (underage!) students?

or

B) That they let it become known that they were doing this by volunteering the information?

Justice would be if they can prove that someone had the camera tuned in while a student was getting dressed, and nail them to the wall on child pornography charges.

DFK! wrote:
I think we should automatically assume the school officials are pedophiles.

I do too. Not because there's any evidence that they are, mind you; just because this caliber of stupid is pretty much asking for it.

Author:  DFK! [ Thu Feb 18, 2010 3:22 pm ]
Post subject:  Re:

Stathol wrote:
DFK! wrote:
I think we should automatically assume the school officials are pedophiles.

I do too. Not because there's any evidence that they are, mind you; just because this caliber of stupid is pretty much asking for it.


GOOMH.

Author:  FarSky [ Thu Feb 18, 2010 3:24 pm ]
Post subject:  Re:

Stathol wrote:
DFK! wrote:
I think we should automatically assume the school officials are pedophiles.

I do too. Not because there's any evidence that they are, mind you; just because this caliber of stupid is pretty much asking for it.

Ayup-yup.

Author:  Hopwin [ Thu Feb 18, 2010 3:37 pm ]
Post subject: 

Here is an interesting question. Do you think the administrators were logging into these laptops after hours at the school while getting paid or do you find it more likely that they remote logged in from their homes on their personal time?

Author:  DFK! [ Thu Feb 18, 2010 4:27 pm ]
Post subject:  Re:

Hopwin wrote:
Here is an interesting question. Do you think the administrators were logging into these laptops after hours at the school while getting paid or do you find it more likely that they remote logged in from their homes on their personal time?


I find it likely that administrators are salaried employees, and as such don't punch a clock to clearly delineate "work time" from "not-work time".

Author:  Elmarnieh [ Thu Feb 18, 2010 4:51 pm ]
Post subject: 

I lived in Lower Merion, live a block away right now. They've been sepdning for the last 15 years, borrowing form foreign funds on all sorts of "pretty up the area and do nothing for the people" programs - this doesn't surprise me.

Two days after teh snowstorm when the roads were cleared tehy spent a few hundred thousand dollars hiring snow compressors to take the ugly dirty snow piles from the edge of the sidewalk and the road.

Author:  Arathain Kelvar [ Thu Feb 18, 2010 5:00 pm ]
Post subject: 

jesus

Author:  Dalantia [ Thu Feb 18, 2010 6:05 pm ]
Post subject: 

RACISM!

Author:  Wwen [ Thu Feb 18, 2010 6:07 pm ]
Post subject: 

Hilarity ensues.

Author:  darksiege [ Thu Feb 18, 2010 7:24 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: PA High School Uses Laptops to Spy on Students at Home

FarSky wrote:
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.


I sincerely hope the school district gets flooped in the pooter over this. "improper behavior in his home" makes it none of the school's gorram business.

Author:  Foamy [ Fri Feb 19, 2010 9:43 am ]
Post subject:  Re: PA High School Uses Laptops to Spy on Students at Home

Can't believe I've heard nothing about this in the local news.

Unbelievable that the school thinks it has the right to do this.

Darksiege:

LOL. Flopped in the pooter.

Author:  Diamondeye [ Fri Feb 19, 2010 9:48 am ]
Post subject:  Re: PA High School Uses Laptops to Spy on Students at Home

Lower Merion is right near where I lived. I can easily see this happening anywhere in that entire county. I wouldn't have been surprised if it had happened to me in high school if school laptops with webcams had existed then.

Someone needs to go to jail.

Author:  Stathol [ Fri Feb 19, 2010 11:42 am ]
Post subject:  Re: PA High School Uses Laptops to Spy on Students at Home

Diamondeye wrote:
Lower Merion is right near where I lived. I can easily see this happening anywhere in that entire country.

This is the best freudian typo ever.

Ars Technica has a follow-up article this morning about the whole incident.

Partial quoting here:

Ars Technica wrote:
Less than a day after Harriton High School's questionable laptop policy made headlines online, its school district has disabled its remote monitoring capabilities. The Lower Merion School District (LMSD) issued a statement in response to a privacy lawsuit by a student saying that it has disabled its "security tracking feature" that allowed the schools to remotely spy on students, even while at home. LMSD claims this feature has never been used for anything but security purposes, though some comments online indicate the contrary.

[...]

However, there are still questions as to whether the school strictly used this in the event of loss or theft as LMSD says. As pointed out in the comments of our original article, a user claiming to be a recent Harriton High School graduate posted his perspective online, noting that the green light on the MacBooks' built-in webcam would come on often enough to arouse student suspicion. "Some [students] covered it up with tape and post-its because they thought the IT guys were watching them," he wrote.

Author:  Diamondeye [ Fri Feb 19, 2010 11:51 am ]
Post subject:  Re: PA High School Uses Laptops to Spy on Students at Home

Who said it was Freudian? ;)

I actually can see it happening almost anywhere. School districts are made up of amateur politicians and amateur lawyers with no oversite from other government, and they operate on the principle that the first goal is to avoid getting sued, or any bad publicity. Like the OP said, they are absolutely paranoid that a school computer might be used for anything "inappropriate".

What's obviously happened here is that they've taken the principle that since it's their computer they can monitor how it's used to mean that they can monitor the activities of the student any time the computer is turned on merely because the student has their computer.

It's essentially "warrantless wiretapping" except that it's even worse bcause it's not even directed at people suspected of being involved in anything, its directed at minors, they haven't even tried to legally justify it to anyone in any way before doing it, and worst of all, it uses this call to "improve education with better technology" as a smokescreen to slip this in on people.

People need to start demanding that the school turn over all monitoring records to the parents at the end of the school year detailing what information was gathered and when, and that webcams be disabled or not present on school computers. This is not just an invasion of privacy, it is an attempt by the school to usurp control of discipline in the home from the parent.

Author:  Micheal [ Fri Feb 19, 2010 12:38 pm ]
Post subject: 

What DE said.

But it is still downright creepy, along with being illegal and immoral.

Author:  Arathain Kelvar [ Fri Feb 19, 2010 12:52 pm ]
Post subject: 

Ok, it's tough to do, but even setting aside the whole surveilance thing, how in the hell do they justify jurisdiction over what kids do outside of school? I mean, if my kid were legally caught "misbehaving" outside of school, and the school punished him for it, I'd still have a shit-fit.

Author:  Micheal [ Fri Feb 19, 2010 1:01 pm ]
Post subject: 

Depends on the offense. If the kid murdered another student or a staff member - yes, extreme example - I think the school would be perfectly justified in expelling his/her tusch. Not that it would matter much, as the kid would most likely be incarcerated or a cooling corpse somewhere.

On a lesser note, if a kid is caught joyriding, shoplifting, or some other misdemeanor or felon offense, the school - upon being notified of such - would normally have the right to revoke privileges or rights to participate in certain activities. If the star quarterback is caught stealing a car, and all of a sudden he is no longer on the football team. I could deal with that.

Author:  Arathain Kelvar [ Fri Feb 19, 2010 3:33 pm ]
Post subject:  Re:

Micheal wrote:
Depends on the offense. If the kid murdered another student or a staff member - yes, extreme example - I think the school would be perfectly justified in expelling his/her tusch. Not that it would matter much, as the kid would most likely be incarcerated or a cooling corpse somewhere.


If he's not, that means he was acquitted, or otherwise returned to society. School = society. I hope you're not suggesting we should kick these people out of school? That's a good way to ensure they'll remain criminals.

Quote:
On a lesser note, if a kid is caught joyriding, shoplifting, or some other misdemeanor or felon offense, the school - upon being notified of such - would normally have the right to revoke privileges or rights to participate in certain activities. If the star quarterback is caught stealing a car, and all of a sudden he is no longer on the football team. I could deal with that.


See above. You're either punished by the criminal justice system or you're released.

Author:  darksiege [ Fri Feb 19, 2010 3:50 pm ]
Post subject: 

I think at the very least the parents should be taking the laptops back to the schools and telling the administration where they can plug in the power adapters.

Author:  Xequecal [ Fri Feb 19, 2010 6:51 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: PA High School Uses Laptops to Spy on Students at Home

Arathain, employers, both government and private, when they are considering employing you, look for your arrest record, not your conviction record. I just got a job and they specifically background checked me for an arrest record. If employers everywhere will punish you when the criminal justice system won't, why not schools?

Author:  Micheal [ Fri Feb 19, 2010 7:09 pm ]
Post subject: 

Arathain, there is still the concept of bail. If the kid has been released on bail and is awaiting trial, the concept of innocent until proven guilty does not keep a school or other public entity from taking temporary measures awaiting the outcome of a trial.

There is also the difference between criminal guilt and civil guilt. Most famously, after the Simpson Murders, OJ was still liable for civil penalties delivered under a different later trial even though he was not proven criminally guilty.

There is also custom and tradition of the stripping of honors and privileges by a secondary body after guilt is established by a court.

None of this has anything to do with the ridiculous monitoring of cameras in the laptops issued by the schools. The guilt there is the administrations, not the students.

Author:  Leshani [ Fri Feb 19, 2010 7:37 pm ]
Post subject: 

There's also those unjustly accused That get punished by secondary institutions. Remember the Duke rape victims.

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