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Loaner school laptops used to spy on kids, families

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30ashopper

30ashopper

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

Creeepy. :shock:
 
What dumbarse thought this was in any way okay?

It is SO going to hit the fan - especially since some of those they are recording are minors!!!! :blink:
 
I am the IT director in a school district and would never think of doing this while the students are at home. Our laptops have an Internet Filter that works no matter where it is, we can get reports on their activity, but under no circumstances should we be able to view live video while they are at home. It might be a stretch but I think that we could view the video feed while they are at school especially if there was a valid reason. I think this goes way beyond what the schools need to be doing, it will be interesting to see how this turns out.
 
While I'm not defending it I'm sure there is much more to this than meets the eye. I can't imagine any school administrator or teacher having this much time on their hands.

I'm wondering if this wasn't something that was recorded by the student and found by an administrator?

The article doesn't mention how the parents knew that the laptop was activated remotely, the article simply says it was so. There was no link to the actual filings so there's no way to verify this statement. I'm not saying that it didn't happen, but I can totally understand an abused child recording something then trying to use this excuse to prevent additional abuse.
 
SWGB said:
While I'm not defending it I'm sure there is much more to this than meets the eye. I can't imagine any school administrator or teacher having this much time on their hands.

I'm wondering if this wasn't something that was recorded by the student and found by an administrator?

The article doesn't mention how the parents knew that the laptop was activated remotely, the article simply says it was so. There was no link to the actual filings so there's no way to verify this statement. I'm not saying that it didn't happen, but I can totally understand an abused child recording something then trying to use this excuse to prevent additional abuse.
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There is a link to the legal case at the bottom of the article, in a PDF.

Robbins v. Lower Merion School District (PDF)
 
Douglas the Intrepid said:
Also, here is the schools direct response to these allegations...

LMSD | Lower Merion School District Announcements
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How did the security feature work?

Upon a report of a suspected lost, stolen or missing laptop, the feature was activated by the District's security and technology departments. The tracking-security feature was limited to taking a still image of the operator and the operator's screen. This feature has only been used for the limited purpose of locating a lost, stolen or missing laptop. The District has not used the tracking feature or web cam for any other purpose or in any other manner whatsoever.
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A highschool distributes macs to the entire student population loaded with software which with the flip of a switch, allows school admins to start taking pictures through the laptop's web cam. :eek: They thought this was a good idea? Heads should roll.
 
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