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Is your school spying on YOU?

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M

mbigna

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Here's a question for any students out there using school-provided laptops.

Do your issued laptops include incorporated webcams and/or GPS?
Were you given any notification of or sign any waivers informing you of possible remote activation of those peripherals?

It appears that a Pennsylvania high school had remote control software installed on students' laptops without their (or their parents') knowledge. They got caught only after showing a webcam photo to a student's parents accusing him of "improper behavior."

http://www.computerworld.com/s/arti...MacBooks?source=CTWNLE_nlt_dailyam_2010-02-19

I can only imagine the amount of abuse that could occur given this situation. The school district (of course) denies that it has ever abused this ability--a claim I find dubious since a photo has already been revealed.

The superintendent has also claimed that the remote control features have been since turned off. But why bother if there wasn't any abuse?

I guess we'll have to wait to see the outcome of the lawsuit.
 
Woah really? I mean I've often changed in front of my computer. What if you weren't doing anything that would be classified as "improper behaviour"?
Thankfully I scanned a lappy my girlfriend got 2 years ago to make sure she didn't have any spyware that would allow some IT technician somewhere to peep in.
It was clean but I can't believe they would do this... And then to show it to the parents?

I'm just wondering what would class as "improper" behaviour?
 
I think its a good feature incase a laptop does get stolen, but they should not have showed the parents of that kid "improper behavior" photos. They also should have told all the students about it.

I had the same feature on my desktop computer back in my college dorm days incase someone tries to mess with my computer. It would take a quick screenshot and send it to my email.
 
Marshmallow64 said:
I think its a good feature incase a laptop does get stolen, but they should not have showed the parents of that kid "improper behavior" photos. They also should have told all the students about it.

I had the same feature on my desktop computer back in my college dorm days incase someone tries to mess with my computer. It would take a quick screenshot and send it to my email.
Click to expand...

mind sharing that program's name to us?
 
Here's another article on this:

http://www.philly.com/philly/news/h..._school_spied_on_him_via_computer_webcam.html

I think the school is screwed. Apparently, their unwritten policy was that the remote control program would only be used to help recover a stolen laptop. However, there was no mention of anyone reporting this laptop stolen--it just seems that they were spying on a student to check up on him.

I don't think the issue has anything to do with the fact that the parents were shown a photo of their son doing something "improper." It's just the fact that the photo got out at all is proof that someone was using the computer as a remote spying device.
 
Lolllergags..... this just in...... "Wisconsin schools have issued laptops to all varsity cheerleaders with the hopes of making them smarter....." wink wink
 
Depending on what the picture of the "improper behavior" is, those school officials may just be guilty of making and distributing (to the kid's parents) child pornography. I'd say a civil lawsuit may not be their biggest concern right about now.
 
Uhh... so... since when did you need access to a webcam to recover a stolen laptop? GPS would be more than enough...
 
eobard said:
Depending on what the picture of the "improper behavior" is, those school officials may just be guilty of making and distributing (to the kid's parents) child pornography. I'd say a civil lawsuit may not be their biggest concern right about now.
Click to expand...

Yeah, it's a good thing that there has never been a documented case of school staff being convicted of child pornography, rape, stalking, school shootings. Wheeew! Its awesome we can completly trust our school systems!:rolleyes:

On a more serious note. What if the school spyware/camera recorded a child being disiplined (properly) without anger and in context. Such as 1-2 smacks on the bottom with a hand or wooden spoon? There are those in power that claim this is child abuse?

MHO here, I don't want the stinkin' government or the school system invading my home. BIG BROTHER can move to Russia where its accepted.

My 2 cents............
 
Wow... that's just insane. To think that some random could be watching kids without their knowledge. Just sick. I'm sure nobody would take a computer from that school if they knew this was possible. I'd have a piece of electrical tape over the webcam.
 
From what I can understand, the "improper" behavior the school recorded was someone eating Mike & Ike candy that the school thought were illegal pills.

I do wonder what the law enforcement would do if the school turned on the camera and caught someone changing clothes, or even in sexual behavior. In USA, any photo of minor under 18 in any sexually suggestive manner could be child porn and anyone caught looking at it would be branded pedophile for life. That means the IT dept and school staff would have to be fired because the law would likely prohibit any convicted pedo from working with kids. I can imaging a real mess the school has gotten into.
 
4GHZ_or_bust said:
From what I can understand, the "improper" behavior the school recorded was someone eating Mike & Ike candy that the school thought were illegal pills.

I do wonder what the law enforcement would do if the school turned on the camera and caught someone changing clothes, or even in sexual behavior. In USA, any photo of minor under 18 in any sexually suggestive manner could be child porn and anyone caught looking at it would be branded pedophile for life. That means the IT dept and school staff would have to be fired because the law would likely prohibit any convicted pedo from working with kids. I can imaging a real mess the school has gotten into.
Click to expand...

They deserve that, frankly. How could you get in trouble for eating 'illegal pills' at your house anyway? I mean if you get caught by the fuzz that's one thing, but the school administration has no business trying to discipline things that happen off of school grounds.

This entire story is full of a bunch of BSing, I hope most of that school district gets fired.
 
Exactly. The original intent was to check the laptop if it was stolen or something. Since that laptop (or any of their laptop) weren't reported missing yet, they had no reason to snoop around.
 
This is going to be a major problem for this district - anything captured can be brought into court. If they are capturing video from these computers at any time, its not impossible that they caught someone changing or otherwise doing things they do in private. This is going to get a lot worse than it is now.
 
I.M.O.G. said:
There had to be some geek involved in this - I'm personally offended that the IT person involved didn't take a stand.
Click to expand...
+1

Some people in that school administration have properly earned some jail time.
 
Elif Tymes said:
Uhh... so... since when did you need access to a webcam to recover a stolen laptop? GPS would be more than enough...
Click to expand...

The GPS finds the laptop, the camera finds who is using the stolen laptop and allows you to check police records.
 
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