Schools spying on kids through webcams

[SassyLady]

Beware of schools that give students laptops to use. This school activated the webcams and took pictures and screen shots - from inside student's homes.


Posted on Mon, Apr. 19, 2010


Lower Merion report: Web cams snapped 56,000 images
By John P. Martin

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.


http://www.philly.com/philly/news/breaking/20100419_Lower_Merion_details_Web_cam_scope.html

[SassyLady]

More info here:



Thursday’s filing, which claims 400 images of Robbins were taken during a two-week period last fall, also says that an IT administrator at the district “may be a voyeur.” Lawyers suing the district are urging a federal judge presiding over the case to grant a forensic examination of administrator’s personal computer.

The lawsuit said the administrator, who has been placed on paid leave, “invokes the Fifth Amendment to every question asked of her, including a question asked as to whether she had ever downloading (sic) pictures to her own computer, including pictures of students who were naked while in their home.”



Read More http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2010/04/webcamscanda/#ixzz0lctxhZjt

[Insein]

Posted awhile back but the pictures actually just came out recently. Totally ridiculous and the school should face the full extent of the law.

[namvet]

8sDFq7j2X5Q

:laugh2:

[revelarts]

Posted awhile back but the pictures actually just came out recently. Totally ridiculous and the school should face the full extent of the law.

yep

[MtnBiker]

This is a great argument against using government property in your home.