School spies on students at home through webcams

[DecepticonDon]

http://gizmodo.com/5474614/school-spies-students-through-their-laptop-cameras


High School students have sued the Lower Merion School District in Philadelphia for spying on them using their laptops' built-in cameras. School administrator activated the webcams remotely and recorded students' activities at home. Way to go, KGB-wannabe assclowns. Updated

The situation was discovered by the Robbins, when their kid was disciplined for "improper behavior in his home." How could that be possible? The Vice Principal showed a photo as the evidence. A photo taken with the school-provided laptop webcam.

Update: Talking to Gizmodo, one of the students at the district says that they suspected this but the school tech support gave excuses. His Early 2008 MacBook's camera light would turn on at random:

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.

He can't access the Activity Monitor because he doesn't have enough privileges, but he says the school uses Apple Remote Desktop.

Another student has confirmed this:

I questioned the IT guy about why it was happening he said that it was because people logged out when an application using the camera was on, he also stated that they could in fact go and look through your webcam it would just violate the fifth ammendment and that's why they didn't.




The FBI has joined the fray
http://www.nbcphiladelphia.com/news/tech/FBI-Launches-Criminal-Investigation-into-Webcam-Spying-Source-84805867.html

[jkhonea]

A lot of people need to lose their jobs. Immediately. Assclowns.

[G_MAN]

Wow, I would have thought it would be 1-2 pervs with access to the remote applications, but for a school to actually use this to discipline the kids for behavior AT HOME. Really, how stupid can you possibly be. Everyone associated with this should be fired, especially the principal or vice-principal who actually showed the parents a picture as proof of the student's "improper behavior at home". Is this a public school?

[wallypiper]

Some other stories on this have made it clear that this wasn't the normal use of the cameras. Only a few had ever been activated and they don't actually have real time control of them. They trigger a program which automatically takes a picture every few minutes or seconds or something. The kid in question took his laptop home, which he was not supposed to do because he would not pay the insurance fee required to be able to do that. So, laptop missing, not eligible to be taken home, photo system activated to try to determine where the laptop is, kid caught with laptop at home against the rules. I'm not sure how I feel about the whole concept but they weren't spying on the kids and everybody knew the possibility existed.

[MONICA]

The "improper activity" that was captured on the laptop that originally prompted the kid being in trouble was that they saw him taking what they thought were illegal drugs, but it turned out to be Mike and Ike candies. I can't seem to find the original article now, but that is what the principal confronted the kid about, and I don't recall any mention of him saying anything to the kid about insurance. What I don't understand is why the kids were allowed access to the laptops if they hadn't paid the insurance. Why didn't they just take them away from them? Another thing I find disturbing is how excited the administrator was about being able to watch what these kids were doing without them knowing.

http://www.philly.com/inquirer/local/20100420_Lower_Merion_details_scope_of_Web-cam_surveillance.html

http://www.nbcphiladelphia.com/news/local-beat/-WebcamGate-Administrator-to-Surrender-Home-Computer-91936424.html

[Back Marker]

I don't know what the school policy is for their laptops, but it needs to be clear to the students that the webcam is controlled by the school. In the business world (in my field), i disable the webcams but do have a backdoor if the laptop is reported missing (it calls home routinely whenever it connects to the internet). this is also revealed to the endusers with a signed confirmation.

if the students signed a Term of use contract and it spells out that the school has full access to the laptop, then the webcam would also be included in that full access control. if no such agreement was signed, then let the lawyers fight it out. i think it was wrong for the school to not fully disclose that the webcam can be activated remotely.

-a|ex

[MrBlah]

it was normal use, they have thousands of pictures from who knows how many kids, the kid in question, they have pictures of him naked, once activated it would record a screenshot and screen capture of the desktop every x seconds until shut off, they found out it ran for 2 weeks like this

the head of the IT department pleaded the 5th, and was caught on tape saying "it's like our own soap opera"

nobody knew they could do this, the school totally dropped the ball on the paperwork for the parents

[BUD]

I would be pressing child porn charges and anything else I could if that happened to my kids. I would act a fool on some administrators.

[Karl Hungus]

I bet the kid teabagged the laptop. But you'll never get to see that photo. LOL

[Dan43]

First, some people need to be fired.
Second, some people need to do time.
Third, a school system should have NO authority to discipline a student for actions the student takes in their home.

Also, this is why you should always cover your webcam when you are not using it.

[wallypiper]

What I don't understand is why the kids were allowed access to the laptops if they hadn't paid the insurance. Why didn't they just take them away from them?
The insurance fee was only required if they wanted to take the laptops out of the school.


they have pictures of him naked,

Source? No report I have read so far has indicated that any of the images captured showed anything of the sort.

I agree that the program was badly administered but I'm not convinced at all that there was any intent to capture or distribute inappropriate images. The "soap opera" comment hardly sounds like child porn to me.

[wallypiper]

Here's a link to the school districts published responses to the whole show.

http://www.lmsd.org/sections/laptops/default.php?id=1235

[winmutt]

Repost (from before crash!)

[MrBlah]

The insurance fee was only required if they wanted to take the laptops out of the school.



Source? No report I have read so far has indicated that any of the images captured showed anything of the sort.

I agree that the program was badly administered but I'm not convinced at all that there was any intent to capture or distribute inappropriate images. The "soap opera" comment hardly sounds like child porn to me.

I listened to the lawyer interview on michael smerconish last week, he was able to give a lot more details than the news media is reporting, they omit the part about his naked pictures, and pictures of the kids dad, and other kids he IM'ed

[Dan43]

I listened to the lawyer interview on michael smerconish last week, he was able to give a lot more details than the news media is reporting, they omit the part about his naked pictures, and pictures of the kids dad, and other kids he IM'edIMO no school system should have the authority to take any action for actions in the home. IT mistakes can happen. If the webcams were turned on to track missing laptops as claimed and then inadvertantly left on that is a mistake. Once the fact that they were left on was discovered, they should have been turned off, parents and police should have been notified and it should have been handled as a IT error. Once the school decided to maintain the data without notifyinf parents or police and and also attempted to use the data to impose punishment for actions taken off in the students home then the school system crossed the line into illegal behavior IMO. There is nothing that kid could have done with that computer or any data he could have had on that computer that will change my opionion.

[MrBlah]

they have over 50,000 pictures from different kids webcams, they even have pictures of the kids sleeping

it's creepy, and someone should go to jail

[BUD]

Students were required to carry and use the laptops, forbidden from using their own computers in school, and prohibited from modifying the software on their machines.

http://www.boingboing.net/2010/04/20/spying-school-took-t.html

[wallypiper]

Students were required to carry and use the laptops, forbidden from using their own computers in school,

First part true. Second part false. They were not allowed to connect to the school network with non-school laptops, but they were not forbidden to use a non school laptop for non school activities, presuming they weren't violating any other school rules.

This situation is bad enough without tossing out undocumented claims from a sight like boingboing. All of the rules, policies, regulations, acceptable use agreements etc are available from the school district website.

[MrBlah]

the rules/policies and agreements were changed after the lawsuit started

[Back Marker]

lesson learned... if you steal a school laptop, be sure to format and reinstall.

-a|ex