School District Sued For Spying on Students At Home Via School Issued Laptops! - TriStateTuners.com :: Home of Tristate Auto Enthusiast

ScoobyNubieToo! · 02-21-2010, 11:10 AM

Privacy? What Privacy:
A suburban Philadelphia school district used the webcams in school-issued laptops to spy on students at home, potentially catching them and their families in compromising situations, a family claims in a federal lawsuit.
Lower Merion School District officials said the laptops "contain a security feature intended to track lost, stolen and missing laptops," and that the feature was deactivated Thursday. Angry students had already responded by putting tape on their laptop cameras and microphones.
Sophomore Tom Halpern described students as "pretty disgusted," and noted that his class recently read "1984," the George Orwell classic that coined the term "Big Brother."
"This is just bogus," said Halpern, 15, of Wynnewood, as he left Harriton High School on Thursday with his taped-up computer. "I just think it's really despicable that they have the ability to just watch me all the time."
The school district can activate the webcams without students' knowledge or permission, the suit said. Plaintiffs Michael and Holly Robbins suspect the cameras captured students and family members as they undressed and in other embarrassing situations, according to the suit.
Such actions would amount to potentially illegal electronic wiretapping, said Witold J. Walczak, legal director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Pennsylvania, which is not involved in the case.
"School officials cannot, any more than police, enter into the home either electronically or physically without an invitation or a warrant," Walczak said.
A school district statement released late Thursday said the tracking feature would not be reactivated "without express written notification to all students and families."
"We can categorically state that we are and have always been committed to protecting the privacy of our students," said the spokesman, Doug Young.
The affluent district prides itself on its technology initiatives, which include giving Apple laptops to each of the approximately 2,300 students at its two high schools.
"It is no accident that we arrived ahead of the curve; in Lower Merion, our responsibility is to lead," Superintendent Christopher W. McGinley wrote on the district Web site. McGinley did not immediately return messages left Thursday by The Associated Press.
The Robbinses said they learned of the alleged webcam images when Lindy Matsko, an assistant principal at Harriton High School, told their son Blake that school officials thought he had engaged in improper behavior at home. The behavior was not specified in the suit.
"(Matsko) cited as evidence a photograph from the webcam embedded in minor plaintiff's personal laptop issued by the school district," the suit states. The behavior was not specified in the suit, which did not make clear whether the family had seen any photographs captured by school officials.
Matsko later confirmed to Michael Robbins that the school had the ability to activate the webcams remotely, according to the suit, which was filed Tuesday and which seeks class-action status.
The Robbinses declined to speak with an Associated Press reporter at their home Thursday. Their lawyer, Mark S. Haltzman, did not return messages.
The U.S. Supreme Court reaffirmed the privacy of the home when it ruled in 2001 that police could not, without a warrant, use thermal imaging equipment outside a home to see if heat lamps were being used inside to grow marijuana. Technology or no, Supreme Court precedents draw "a firm line at the entrance to the house," Justice Antonin Scalia wrote, quoting an earlier case.
"This isn't just them spying on the kids, this is them intruding on the parents' home. Who knows what they are seeing?" Walczak said. "The courts for 80 years have said there's no greater sanctuary than a person's own home."
The lawsuit's allegations raise new concerns about school-issued laptops, said an Electronic Freedom Foundation lawyer.
"I've never heard of anything this egregious," said Kevin Bankston, a senior staff attorney at the San Francisco-based group. "Nobody would have imagined that schools would peer into students private homes and even bedrooms without any kind of justification.
Students like Halpern say they mostly keep their computers in their bedrooms -- and rarely turn them off.
"School ends at the end of the school property, so they shouldn't really be in our business at home," Halpern said.
Another update:
Laptop-Spying School Accessed Webcams 42 Times; FBI Begins Investigation
Surely by now you've heard about the high school student suing Philadelphia's Lower Merion School District for remotely accessing his webcam. And maybe you read the Superintendent's response and thought, "well, maybe this whole business is getting blown out of proportion." It isn't.

According to a Washington Post report from early this morning, the school district has admitted to remotely activating its laptops' webcams forty-two times over the last 2 years. Now the FBI is involved, determining if the school district violated any wiretapping or computer-privacy laws in the process.

The school district maintains that the webcams were only accessed in efforts to retrieve stolen or lost laptops, but this whole mess stems from the punishment of a student in which a webcam shot, snapped while the student was in his home, was cited as evidence of wrongdoing. The extent to which the school abused its ability to access the webcams isn't quite clear at this point, but the original incident makes the school's defense about using them strictly as a security measure pretty hard to believe. [Washington Post]

GeforceXtreme · 02-21-2010, 11:21 AM

I can't believe schools now give kids laptops to take home. When I went to school you either had your own pc at home, or used the library lol.

I don't think the kids should have been going onto websites non school related on a school property item.. but also the school shouldn't be spying on them while they are outside of school properties.

I saw a video of a kid saying he puts a piece of tape over the cam lens so they can't watch him... they showed his laptop with a piece of clear tape over it.. hah wow.... You think the kid would have used a piece of electrical tape or something.

ScoobyNubieToo! · 02-21-2010, 11:23 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by GeforceXtreme

I can't believe schools now give kids laptops to take home. When I went to school you either had your own pc at home, or used the library lol.

I don't think the kids should have been going onto websites non school related on a school property item.. but also the school shouldn't be spying on them while they are outside of school properties.

I think it's pretty sick that they can just access a students webcam at ANYTIME. Talk about invasion of privacy.

i like rice · 02-21-2010, 11:54 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by GeforceXtreme

I can't believe schools now give kids laptops to take home. When I went to school you either had your own pc at home, or used the library lol.

When I was in school, we were still on 14.4k dial up modems.

Protege v2.5 · 02-21-2010, 11:54 AM

Just another way that "security" and I use that term loosely, is destroying our privacy and freedoms.

Links to actual news story?

ScoobyNubieToo! · 02-21-2010, 12:01 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Protege v2.5

Just another way that "security" and I use that term loosely, is destroying our privacy and freedoms.

Links to actual news story?

It's been all over local news and in the Courier Post and Philly Inquirer. Here's just one link:
http://www.philly.com/inquirer/front...territory.html

Honduh · 02-21-2010, 03:46 PM

Wow I hope that school district gets f'ed in the A!

I'd be concerned with child pornography and such if I was a parent.

c0nfl1kt · 02-21-2010, 07:05 PM

I don't think all schools "give kids laptops to go home". I believe this school was one in Lower Merion Township which is pretty effing wealthy.

The Captain · 02-21-2010, 07:10 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by c0nfl1kt

I don't think all schools "give kids laptops to go home". I believe this school was one in Lower Merion Township which is pretty effing wealthy.

Exactly. Very wealthy school. And they were Macbooks they were given.

I was listening to Preston and Steve friday morning when they were talking about this. Apparently some kids had hunches about this and were covering the cameras and mics with tape so that it couldnt b seen through.

I believe the camera indicator light was disabled too so students couldnt know when they were being filmed.

And this was all found out because the Vice Principal came to a student with a screen shot of him eating Mike and Ikes and the vp thought they were pills.

Protege v2.5 · 02-21-2010, 09:40 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by The Captain

And this was all found out because the Vice Principal came to a student with a screen shot of him eating Mike and Ikes and the vp thought they were pills.

Which has nothing to do with theft. If that is the real story the school district is fucted.

c0nfl1kt · 02-21-2010, 09:45 PM

Someone needs to lose their job after this. I don't know what will happen afterwards with the computers, but whoever took that screenshot and was doing god-knows-what with that live feed needs to lose their job and perhaps even spend a little time in the clink because of potentially breaking wiretapping/surveillance laws.

Xclusive_Russ · 02-21-2010, 10:12 PM

St Johns in Queens gives us laptops. Now I think I am going to put mine in the closet LOL.

enigma · 02-21-2010, 11:15 PM

Someone needs to go to jail for this.
This is pretty ****ed up.

jesus_ralliart · 02-22-2010, 11:51 AM

If this happened to me, the first thing I would do when I got home with my school issued comp is drop my pants and start jerking off with the camera and mic on. Problem solved.

Scapegoat · 02-22-2010, 11:54 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jesus_ralliart

If this happened to me, the first thing I would do when I got home with my school issued comp is drop my pants and start jerking off with the camera and mic on. Problem solved.

because you get off to some fat slop of an IT guy watching you masturbate?

jpalamar · 02-22-2010, 12:04 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Honduh

Wow I hope that school district gets f'ed in the A!

I'd be concerned with child pornography and such if I was a parent.

The problem is if the parents sue for $$$ the kids will get hurt from budget cuts. If anything, they should demand the high end peoples salaries that approved this and or jail time.

Quote:

Originally Posted by The Captain

Exactly. Very wealthy school. And they were Macbooks they were given.

I was listening to Preston and Steve friday morning when they were talking about this. Apparently some kids had hunches about this and were covering the cameras and mics with tape so that it couldnt b seen through.

I believe the camera indicator light was disabled too so students couldnt know when they were being filmed.

And this was all found out because the Vice Principal came to a student with a screen shot of him eating Mike and Ikes and the vp thought they were pills.

Why does a school need to give out Macs anyway? Why not have kids learn on a PC being that they are the majority and on top of that actually cost effective.

Scapegoat · 02-22-2010, 12:06 PM

windows or mac... doesn't matter. simple fact is, they don't need to be giving kids laptops.

i guarantee after some deeper investigation they'll find pics of students in compromising situations. i won't be surprised to hear about someone going to jail

ScoobyNubieToo! · 02-22-2010, 10:04 PM

I agree- I definitely think someone will be going to pound-me-in-the-ass prison when all is said and done.

ScoobyNubieToo! · 02-22-2010, 10:05 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jpalamar

The problem is if the parents sue for $$$ the kids will get hurt from budget cuts. .

School carry insurance policies that cover legal payouts.

FocusDude · 02-22-2010, 10:46 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ScoobyNubieToo!

School carry insurance policies that cover legal payouts.

Whose policy increases will get directly passed on to the taxpayer. How much you paying your super(or whoever came up with this scheme)? The Union will back him to the end, and then bitch when the school district cant't make budget.

I never understood colleges giving laps with tuition, at a grade school level it just shows tax dollars at waste. It in no way improves education, I'm about to use my kids to prove it.

02-21-2010, 11:10 AM	#1
ScoobyNubieToo! Tri-State Post Whore Join Date: Sep 2005 Location: Williamstown Member #862 My Ride: WRB 2004 WRX Wagon with 07 STI Trans and Longblock inside! iTrader: (7)	School District Sued For Spying on Students At Home Via School Issued Laptops! Privacy? What Privacy: A suburban Philadelphia school district used the webcams in school-issued laptops to spy on students at home, potentially catching them and their families in compromising situations, a family claims in a federal lawsuit. Lower Merion School District officials said the laptops "contain a security feature intended to track lost, stolen and missing laptops," and that the feature was deactivated Thursday. Angry students had already responded by putting tape on their laptop cameras and microphones. Sophomore Tom Halpern described students as "pretty disgusted," and noted that his class recently read "1984," the George Orwell classic that coined the term "Big Brother." "This is just bogus," said Halpern, 15, of Wynnewood, as he left Harriton High School on Thursday with his taped-up computer. "I just think it's really despicable that they have the ability to just watch me all the time." The school district can activate the webcams without students' knowledge or permission, the suit said. Plaintiffs Michael and Holly Robbins suspect the cameras captured students and family members as they undressed and in other embarrassing situations, according to the suit. Such actions would amount to potentially illegal electronic wiretapping, said Witold J. Walczak, legal director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Pennsylvania, which is not involved in the case. "School officials cannot, any more than police, enter into the home either electronically or physically without an invitation or a warrant," Walczak said. A school district statement released late Thursday said the tracking feature would not be reactivated "without express written notification to all students and families." "We can categorically state that we are and have always been committed to protecting the privacy of our students," said the spokesman, Doug Young. The affluent district prides itself on its technology initiatives, which include giving Apple laptops to each of the approximately 2,300 students at its two high schools. "It is no accident that we arrived ahead of the curve; in Lower Merion, our responsibility is to lead," Superintendent Christopher W. McGinley wrote on the district Web site. McGinley did not immediately return messages left Thursday by The Associated Press. The Robbinses said they learned of the alleged webcam images when Lindy Matsko, an assistant principal at Harriton High School, told their son Blake that school officials thought he had engaged in improper behavior at home. The behavior was not specified in the suit. "(Matsko) cited as evidence a photograph from the webcam embedded in minor plaintiff's personal laptop issued by the school district," the suit states. The behavior was not specified in the suit, which did not make clear whether the family had seen any photographs captured by school officials. Matsko later confirmed to Michael Robbins that the school had the ability to activate the webcams remotely, according to the suit, which was filed Tuesday and which seeks class-action status. The Robbinses declined to speak with an Associated Press reporter at their home Thursday. Their lawyer, Mark S. Haltzman, did not return messages. The U.S. Supreme Court reaffirmed the privacy of the home when it ruled in 2001 that police could not, without a warrant, use thermal imaging equipment outside a home to see if heat lamps were being used inside to grow marijuana. Technology or no, Supreme Court precedents draw "a firm line at the entrance to the house," Justice Antonin Scalia wrote, quoting an earlier case. "This isn't just them spying on the kids, this is them intruding on the parents' home. Who knows what they are seeing?" Walczak said. "The courts for 80 years have said there's no greater sanctuary than a person's own home." The lawsuit's allegations raise new concerns about school-issued laptops, said an Electronic Freedom Foundation lawyer. "I've never heard of anything this egregious," said Kevin Bankston, a senior staff attorney at the San Francisco-based group. "Nobody would have imagined that schools would peer into students private homes and even bedrooms without any kind of justification. Students like Halpern say they mostly keep their computers in their bedrooms -- and rarely turn them off. "School ends at the end of the school property, so they shouldn't really be in our business at home," Halpern said. Another update: Laptop-Spying School Accessed Webcams 42 Times; FBI Begins Investigation Surely by now you've heard about the high school student suing Philadelphia's Lower Merion School District for remotely accessing his webcam. And maybe you read the Superintendent's response and thought, "well, maybe this whole business is getting blown out of proportion." It isn't. According to a Washington Post report from early this morning, the school district has admitted to remotely activating its laptops' webcams forty-two times over the last 2 years. Now the FBI is involved, determining if the school district violated any wiretapping or computer-privacy laws in the process. The school district maintains that the webcams were only accessed in efforts to retrieve stolen or lost laptops, but this whole mess stems from the punishment of a student in which a webcam shot, snapped while the student was in his home, was cited as evidence of wrongdoing. The extent to which the school abused its ability to access the webcams isn't quite clear at this point, but the original incident makes the school's defense about using them strictly as a security measure pretty hard to believe. [Washington Post] __________________ 2004 WRX WRB Wagon with 07 STI Trans and Longblock inside! See my member's journal here: To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 10 or greater. You currently have 0 signatures.

02-21-2010, 11:21 AM	#2
GeforceXtreme Tri-State Post Whore Join Date: Apr 2005 Location: Holland, Pa Member #367 My Ride: 2000 Buick Regal GSE iTrader: (0)	I can't believe schools now give kids laptops to take home. When I went to school you either had your own pc at home, or used the library lol. I don't think the kids should have been going onto websites non school related on a school property item.. but also the school shouldn't be spying on them while they are outside of school properties. I saw a video of a kid saying he puts a piece of tape over the cam lens so they can't watch him... they showed his laptop with a piece of clear tape over it.. hah wow.... You think the kid would have used a piece of electrical tape or something. __________________ To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 10 or greater. You currently have 0 signatures. - "Gods Grocery Getter is powered by an L67 3800" - *To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 10 or greater. You currently have 0 signatures.* 12.900 @ 109.91mph 2.166 60Ft (Fastest 1/4) 13.374 @ 110.01mph 2.467 60Ft (Fastest Trap)

02-21-2010, 10:12 PM	#12
Xclusive_Russ Tri-State Aficionado Join Date: Jan 2010 Location: LI, NY Member #15451 My Ride: 2010 Impreza 2.5i/1999 OBS iTrader: (0)	St Johns in Queens gives us laptops. Now I think I am going to put mine in the closet LOL. __________________ Subaru Outback Sport - "My groceries are faster than your groceries." To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 10 or greater. You currently have 0 signatures. 1999 Outback Sport Cam'd (For sale) 2010 Impreza 2.5i Hatch

02-21-2010, 11:15 PM	#13
enigma Tri-State Addict Join Date: Oct 2006 Location: Glenolden ,PA Member #2659 My Ride: Hoopties galore iTrader: (0)	Someone needs to go to jail for this. This is pretty ****ed up. __________________ 2001 Dakota Quad Cab, 1996 Ford F250, 1993 Honda Civic, 1991 Eagle Talon, 1970 Plymouth Duster.

02-22-2010, 10:04 PM	#18
ScoobyNubieToo! Tri-State Post Whore Join Date: Sep 2005 Location: Williamstown Member #862 My Ride: WRB 2004 WRX Wagon with 07 STI Trans and Longblock inside! iTrader: (7)	I agree- I definitely think someone will be going to pound-me-in-the-ass prison when all is said and done. __________________ 2004 WRX WRB Wagon with 07 STI Trans and Longblock inside! See my member's journal here: To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 10 or greater. You currently have 0 signatures.

02-21-2010, 11:54 AM	#5
Protege v2.5 Tri-State Addict Join Date: Mar 2008 Location: SoLanCo Member #7303 My Ride: 2016 Mazda 6 iTrader: (1)	Just another way that "security" and I use that term loosely, is destroying our privacy and freedoms. Links to actual news story?

02-21-2010, 03:46 PM	#7
Honduh Tri-State Post Whore Join Date: May 2006 Member #1977 iTrader: (0)	Wow I hope that school district gets f'ed in the A! I'd be concerned with child pornography and such if I was a parent.

02-22-2010, 11:51 AM	#14
jesus_ralliart Tri-State Addict Join Date: Feb 2010 Member #15649 My Ride: 05 neon iTrader: (0)	If this happened to me, the first thing I would do when I got home with my school issued comp is drop my pants and start jerking off with the camera and mic on. Problem solved.

02-22-2010, 12:06 PM	#17
Scapegoat TST Ruined My Life! Join Date: Dec 2005 Location: stop looking at my gold Member #1208 iTrader: (1)	windows or mac... doesn't matter. simple fact is, they don't need to be giving kids laptops. i guarantee after some deeper investigation they'll find pics of students in compromising situations. i won't be surprised to hear about someone going to jail

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