{"id":2559,"date":"2010-02-25T09:31:54","date_gmt":"2010-02-25T09:31:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.darknet.org.uk\/?p=2559"},"modified":"2015-09-09T19:37:42","modified_gmt":"2015-09-09T11:37:42","slug":"us-school-remotely-spying-on-kids-with-webcams","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.darknet.org.uk\/2010\/02\/us-school-remotely-spying-on-kids-with-webcams\/","title":{"rendered":"US School Remotely Spying On Kids With Webcams"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The big news that has been blowing up in the past week or so is about a relatively unknown school district in Pennsylvania, US that has been spying on its students using Macbook webcams.<\/p>\n
It has actually turned into a class action lawsuit and there is a lot of debate surrounding the story, the school claims they were using the software and ‘spycam’ functionality simply to recover lost laptops rather than actually spying on their students remotely.<\/p>\n
The lawsuit deals with the issue of unauthorised access to the webcams and the actions could also possibly violate wiretapping laws. The lawsuit itself can be found here<\/a> [PDF].<\/p>\n A suburban Philadelphia school district accused of secretly switching on laptop computer webcams inside students’ homes says it never used webcam images to monitor or discipline students and believes one of its administrators has been “unfairly portrayed and unjustly attacked.”<\/p>\n The Lower Merion School District, in response to a suit filed by a student, has acknowledged that webcams were remotely activated 42 times in the past 14 months, but only to find missing, lost or stolen laptops \u2014 which the district noted would include “a loaner computer that, against regulations, might be taken off campus.”<\/p>\n “Despite some reports to the contrary, be assured that the security-tracking software has been completely disabled,” Superintendent Christopher W. McGinley said in a statement on the district’s Web site late Friday. Officials vowed a comprehensive review that McGinley said should result in stronger privacy policies.<\/p>\n Harriton High School student Blake Robbins and his parents, Michael and Holly Robbins, filed a federal civil rights lawsuit Tuesday against the district, its board of directors and McGinley. They accused the school of turning on the webcam in his computer while it was inside their Penn Valley home, which they allege violated wiretap laws and his right to privacy.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n It’s turning into a massive case and is generating press all over the globe, someone powerful technology was used by a perhaps over-zealous network admin named Mike Perbix.<\/p>\n