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School turns on webcam to possibly spy on students


Texsox

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The idea behind it to recover stolen property isn't that bad. However, when the opportunity for abuse is just sitting right there, apparently this dumbass ass. principal did just that. Who knows who he has spied on in the past. hat is what is gonna mess up that whole district. Heads need to roll and dollars are gonna change hands.

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  • 1 month later...

In case you haven't been following this story...Mercy, 56,000 images.

Lower Merion School District employees activated the web cameras and tracking software on laptops they gave to high school students about 80 times in the past two school years, snapping nearly 56,000 images that included photos of students, pictures inside their homes and copies of the programs or files running on their screens, district investigators have concluded.

 

In most of the cases, technicians turned on the system after a student or staffer reported a laptop missing and turned it off when the machine was found, the investigators determined.

 

But in at least five instances, school employees let the Web cams keep clicking for days or weeks after students found their missing laptops, according to the review. Those computers - programmed to snap a photo and capture a screen shot every 15 minutes when the machine was on - fired nearly 13,000 images back to the school district servers.

 

The data, given to The Inquirer on Monday by a school district lawyer, represents the most detailed account yet of how and when Lower Merion used the remote tracking system, a practice that has sparked a civil rights lawsuit, an FBI investigation and new federal legislation.

 

The district's attorney, Henry Hockeimer, declined to describe in detail any of the recovered Web cam photos, or identify the people in them or their surroundings. He said none appeared to show "salacious or inappropriate" images but said that in no way justified the use of the program.

 

"The taking of these pictures without student consent in their homes was obviously wrong," Hockeimer said.

 

A federal magistrate judge is expected this week to begin the process of arranging for parents whose children were photographed to privately view the photos.

 

Hockeimer said the district's internal investigation is ongoing and that the numbers could change. He said the board authorized him to release the information in response to a new court motion filed last week by Harriton High School sophomore Blake Robbins, whose lawsuit contends the program invaded his privacy.

 

In the motion, Robbins' attorney, Mark Haltzman, argued that the now-disabled system had surreptitiously collected more than 400 photos of his client - including shots of him when he was shirtless and while he slept in his bed last fall - as well as thousands of images from other students' computers.

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School should have had students sign some kinda consent form that the student would know the situation would happen if laptop was reported stolen. Also, you would think the school would be more on top of turning the webcams off considering the invasion of privacy and obvious issues that could arise with abuse.

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QUOTE (GoodAsGould @ Apr 19, 2010 -> 11:22 PM)
School should have had students sign some kinda consent form that the student would know the situation would happen if laptop was reported stolen. Also, you would think the school would be more on top of turning the webcams off considering the invasion of privacy and obvious issues that could arise with abuse.

The criminals are most likely other students. If they knew ahead of time that the camera would remotely activate, it defeats the reason that the school had for having them on there.

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QUOTE (knightni @ Apr 19, 2010 -> 10:58 PM)
The criminals are most likely other students. If they knew ahead of time that the camera would remotely activate, it defeats the reason that the school had for having them on there.

 

As soon as they start finding missing laptops using the webcams word of mouth would of spread anyways, not too mention most people would have no idea on how to stop it taking pictures and it would serve as a deterrent(sp?) to steal the laptops in the first place.

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QUOTE (Quinarvy @ Apr 21, 2010 -> 03:21 AM)
Yea, that isn't creepy at all of the high school. God that's disturbing.

So, the school's security program turned on and had a malfunction that caused it to not shut off. How creepy.

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QUOTE (knightni @ Apr 19, 2010 -> 10:58 PM)
The criminals are most likely other students. If they knew ahead of time that the camera would remotely activate, it defeats the reason that the school had for having them on there.

 

Or it'd work as a deterrent...it's about getting the computers back, not busting kids.

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