School used webcam to spy on student

[Saya]

CBS/AP) The family that sued to get a suburban Pennsylvania school district to stop secretly viewing students at home via webcams on school-issued laptops is blasting the practice, though it's been halted.

Officials of the Lower Merion School District, outside Philadelphia, acknowledged Friday that they remotely activated webcams 42 times in the past 14 months, but only to find missing laptops given to students. They insist they never did so to spy on students, as the family of 16-year-old Blake Robbins claimed in the federal lawsuit.

The district has suspended the practice amid the lawsuit and the accompanying uproar from students, the community and privacy advocates.

And the family's lawyer, Mark Haltzman, told "Early Show Saturday Edition" co-anchor Erica Hill he's been informed that the FBI has opened a criminal investigation of the webcam use.

A source told The Associated Press the bureau is exploring whether the district broke any federal wiretap or computer-intrusion laws.

Hill says school officials haven't responded to a request from CBS News for reaction to word of the FBI probe.

Haltzman says the family filed suit only to get the remote webam use stopped.

Blake Robbins, the teen at the center of the controversy, told Hill it all began when Harriton High School administrators falsely accused him of selling drugs and taking pills; then said they had webcam images to prove it.

Blake says the pictures are of him eating candies.

Blake's mother, Holly Robbins, says she "was panicked" when she learned what was going on. "I thought this was just horrifying, that somebody could, especially the school, come into my home and spy on my son, and my daughter - she's 18 years old. And it was scary. It was like having a Peeping Tom."

Blake's sister, Paige Robbins, told Hill she "can say that on behalf of all of my girlfriends at Harriton, we were very scared, because we don't check to see if the lid is closed when we're changing. We take them in the bathroom when we're in the shower to listen to music. So, we're all petrified. We don't know who's on the other end watching us do whatever."

His father, Michael Robbins, says he's taking a wait-and-see approach before declaring himself satisfied with the district's response to the lawsuit.

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2010/...n6226260.shtml


I can't really believe someone thought it was a great idea to allow a school administration the ability to turn on a student's webcam. Even from a security stand point, wouldn't a GPS tracker or something be more efficient? Shouldn't parents be informed that a camera is going into their house? If they take a picture while someone is changing, can they get charged for having child porn? Seriously, WHO would think this was a good idea?

[Deadmanwalking_05]

Originally Posted by Saya

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2010/...n6226260.shtml


I can't really believe someone thought it was a great idea to allow a school administration the ability to turn on a student's webcam. Even from a security stand point, wouldn't a GPS tracker or something be more efficient? Shouldn't parents be informed that a camera is going into their house? If they take a picture while someone is changing, can they get charged for having child porn? Seriously, WHO would think this was a good idea?

"But Deadman is a fucking moron there is no plan for a Government sponsored surveillance grid..."

Mainstream Media coverage no less.

If you guys don't get a clue now you never will.

[JCC]

Originally Posted by Deadmanwalking_05

"But Deadman is a fucking moron there is no plan for a Government sponsored surveillance grid..."

Mainstream Media coverage no less.

If you guys don't get a clue now you never will.

The Federal government is investigating.

[Deadmanwalking_05]

Originally Posted by JCC

The Federal government is investigating.

But the laptop spy cams got funding from where?

The Public school system...which in turn is ran by whom?

The Federal Government.

[Saya]

Originally Posted by Deadmanwalking_05

But the laptop spy cams got funding from where?

The Public school system...which in turn is ran by whom?

The Federal Government.

I had a high school teacher who was a racist, doesn't mean the government is racist. Schools generally have their own individual say in where funding goes anyway.

So no, this does not amount to a crazy conspiracy where Obama is watching you and your blow up doll fuck at night.

[JCC]

Originally Posted by Deadmanwalking_05

But the laptop spy cams got funding from where?

The Public school system...which in turn is ran by whom?

The Federal Government.

I can't even be bothered arguing this. You're a dumbass.

[Despanan]

God damn Deadman. Can't we have ONE thread that you don't spam with your infowars inspired faggotry?

[Ben Lahnger]

Originally Posted by Despanan

God damn Deadman. Can't we have ONE thread that you don't spam with your infowars inspired faggotry?

No. This is my point. If Deadman posts, you can be certain it is exactly that kind of infowars inspired faggotry.

Back to the thread at hand. Extremely bad judgment on the part of school administration. Since these are the same people who try to expel children from school for having a plastic butter knife in their backpack (yeah, I post Zero Tolerance Rules inspired faggotry) ... I hope they're dealt with strongly when the responsibility is proven and judgment is rendered.

[Renatus]

The school could of simply put a program on the computer that force users to check into a web server with a specific password that changes every so often, and if they dont check in with the server the computer is locked out. Thats what they did with the 1 computer 1 child program, and it's worked pretty well so far from what I've heard,

[JCC]

Originally Posted by Renatus

The school could of simply put a program on the computer that force users to check into a web server with a specific password that changes every so often, and if they dont check in with the server the computer is locked out. Thats what they did with the 1 computer 1 child program, and it's worked pretty well so far from what I've heard,

I'm trying to think of reasons someone would do this and each reason is stupid.

[Renatus]

Originally Posted by JCC

I'm trying to think of reasons someone would do this and each reason is stupid.

As stupid as remotely activating a webcam to see where it is?

[JCC]

Originally Posted by Renatus

As stupid as remotely activating a webcam to see where it is?

No, but the aim of quantifying stupidity is not to legitimise all other ridiculous things that aren't the absolute apex of brainlessness, so the server thing is still a terrible idea.

[Renatus]

Originally Posted by JCC

No, but the aim of quantifying stupidity is not to legitimise all other ridiculous things that aren't the absolute apex of brainlessness, so the server thing is still a terrible idea.

I'm not saying it's the most amazing idea ever, I'm saying it's the lesser of two evils. Also I described it wrong, here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bitfrost

[Renatus]

Also it should be noted that the program was designed by a harvard graduate (who also co-wrote the book on Ubuntu) for use in a laptop desgined by MIT.

[Rasputin]

Seems that restricting students with school issued laptops with webcams is a means to infiltrate personal affairs in the name of discipline. Is the federal government, who run over the public school system doing this kind of stupid act? Perhaps they are disobeying the basic laws, especially in respecting one's home.

[Renatus]

Originally Posted by Rasputin

Seems that restricting students with school issued laptops with webcams is a means to infiltrate personal affairs in the name of discipline. Is the federal government, who run over the public school system doing this kind of stupid act? Perhaps they are disobeying the basic laws, especially in respecting one's home.

They never mentioned the system they have in place that gives the students the laptops, but I'm guessing its some sort of loan system for kids, possibly kids whose families cant affort a computer at home. They arnt forcing all of their kids to take home laptops, no school district could possibly afford such a thing. Well unless the 1 computer 1 child program manages to meet their goal of developing a $100 laptop.

[Methadrine]

Originally Posted by Renatus

They never mentioned the system they have in place that gives the students the laptops, but I'm guessing its some sort of loan system for kids, possibly kids whose families cant affort a computer at home. They arnt forcing all of their kids to take home laptops, no school district could possibly afford such a thing. Well unless the 1 computer 1 child program manages to meet their goal of developing a $100 laptop.

The laptops they provided were MacBooks so that school must have one hell of a sponsor somewhere that can afford to let the school lend out such expensive computers.

[Underwater Ophelia]

Let's get one thing straight--the school is stupid, but not malicious. The title of this thread is inaccurate. They weren't spying on anyone. The kid stole the laptop, and their policy is to remotely access the webcam and take a photo. Yes, this is illegal, and it's stupid, but they weren't looking to take away anyone's privacy or get their hands on child porn.

[JCC]

Originally Posted by Underwater Ophelia

Let's get one thing straight--the school is stupid, but not malicious. The title of this thread is inaccurate. They weren't spying on anyone. The kid stole the laptop, and their policy is to remotely access the webcam and take a photo. Yes, this is illegal, and it's stupid, but they weren't looking to take away anyone's privacy or get their hands on child porn.

Well, they were. Their stated objective was not to take away their students' privacy but a policy of watching the students without their knowing in their own homes is certainly a deliberate invasion of privacy.

[Underwater Ophelia]

Originally Posted by JCC

Well, they were. Their stated objective was not to take away their students' privacy but a policy of watching the students without their knowing in their own homes is certainly a deliberate invasion of privacy.

The policy is not to watch students without their knowing. They don't watch, they take a single photo to identify who stole the laptop. Still illegal, but not the same as watching.

The students ARE made aware that if a laptop is stolen, this is what happens. He stole a laptop--it happened.

So yes, it's still stupid, and it's still illegal, but it's not what people are making it out to be.

[JCC]

He didn't steal the laptop. The laptops are given out by the school district.

[Methadrine]

Originally Posted by Underwater Ophelia

The policy is not to watch students without their knowing. They don't watch, they take a single photo to identify who stole the laptop. Still illegal, but not the same as watching.

The students ARE made aware that if a laptop is stolen, this is what happens. He stole a laptop--it happened.

So yes, it's still stupid, and it's still illegal, but it's not what people are making it out to be.

Several people from the school that also borrowed the computers have posted on various forums (Arstechnica's and Slashdot's are two examples) that they noticed the webcam turning on and off several times when they were using them at home, quite confirming that the school was monitoring them even if the computers wasn't stolen. Some, more techsavvy people, got around this by placing sillyputty and strips of tape over the camera and microphone.

You can turn this either way you wan't, what the school did is still wrong, illegal and a huge breach of privacy.

[Underwater Ophelia]

Originally Posted by JCC

He didn't steal the laptop. The laptops are given out by the school district.

Yes, he did. The news isn't reporting that because it makes the story less fun, but the school district is one over from where I went.

[Alan]

Even if he stole it, the accusation was that he was taking drugs; that he stole it is irrelevant to the fact that they only 'knew' this by observing him without his consent, apparently for other reasons than finding the laptop, and even if the webcam was powered to locate it (which is really stupid, everyone here agrees on that at least) at that precise moment they thought he was taking drugs, making any further accusation than that he stole it was not warranted in the same manner that court evidence acquired through illegal means ought not be considered in court.

[Methadrine]

Here's some interesting reading regarding the tech and people behind it, as well as some fucked up school policies.

http://strydehax.blogspot.com/2010/0...gton-high.html