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High school uses notebook webcams to spy on students
In a statement yesterday, Superintendant Dr. Christopher McGinley confirmed that the laptops indeed have a "security feature" to track missing systems. The "feature" can take a "still image of the operator and the operator's screen," but McGinley said it has been deactivated, and will not be reactivated without express written notification. He also insisted that the feature has only been used to locate lost, stolen or missing laptops.
Students involved in the suit have contacted Gizmodo with details about the situation. It's said that the green lights next to the kids' laptops often turns on, suggesting it's in use, but the district claims it's just a glitch. One student questioned a school IT guy about the light, who said it was occurring because "people logged out when an application using the camera was on." The employee also admitted that the school could in fact look through the webcam, but it would violate law.
You can read more about the Robbins v. Lower Merion School District suit via this PDF.
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matrix86 said:
I can't believe that some people think that it's ok for the school to use the camera if the school notices the user doing something on it they aren't supposed to. Just because you notice a student looking at porn or looking at "how to build a bomb", that gives no excuse for using the webcam. It is still illegal even if the student is doing illegal activity.
If the school is remotely connected viewing just the screen and they see the student doing something bad or illegal, they can just do a screen cap and they're good to go.
Now I realize the SLIGHT problem here. "What if the laptop was stolen?" Well, it's the students responsibility to report it immediately. The reason this is a SLIGHT problem is because some students may not report right away if they think they just misplaced it or left it at school.
This happened at a college a friend of mine went to:
A student had left a school issued laptop in the computer lab. By the time he realized it and went back, the laptop was gone. He immediately called the police and put in a report. It was a good thing he did because someone used the laptop that night to attempt to hack into the school's security cameras. Had the student not put filed a stolen laptop report, he would have been the suspect. The "I don't have it because i think it's been stolen" excuse will NOT work. The laptop could have easily been stashed away.
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Now the school has the right to monitor what's going on on the screen as the laptop is a school issued laptop and they have every right to see what's going on. What they DON'T have the right to do without a signed consent is to activate the web cam. At that point they are now invading personal privacy by looking inside another person's home.
To the person that said "it belongs to the school they can do with it what they want"...you're telling me that because it's theirs they can perform illegal activity? Yeah, let's see that pass before a judge.
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