Are Schools Violating Privacy with Student Laptop Webcams?

[lisab]

A Philadelphia school district issued laptops to each of its high school students; pretty cool idea...

"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.

Students later found out that school officials could (and apparently did) turn on the web cams remotely, and watch them at school and at home. They did this without notifying the students or families! Now the school district is being sued.

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.

Unbelievable ..someone has some 'splainin' to do!


http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/35461838/ns/technology_and_science-security/"

 

[Dembadon]

...Students later found out that school officials could (and apparently did) turn on the web cams remotely, and watch them at school and at home. They did this without notifying the students or families! Now the school district is being sued. ...

There was a Frontline episode that was on a couple weeks ago which had something very similar. It showed a staff member of a school accessing various students' on-board laptop cameras to see what they were up to. He even admitted to occasionally altering things on their computer from his workstation while they were using it, and did so during the interview.

This was all done under the banner of making sure the students weren't goofing off.

Edit: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/digitalnation/view/" is the episode I watched.

 

[humanino]

Unbelievable

Yes, it's hard to swallow. If it's true, it's quite disgusting.

 

[Proton Soup]

i'm sure it was all in the fine print