School used student laptop webcams to spy on them at school and home
By Cory Doctorow at 11:49 PM February 17, 2010

According to the filings in Blake J Robbins v Lower Merion School District (PA) et al, the laptops issued to high-school students in the well-heeled Philly suburb have webcams that can be covertly activated by the schools' administrators, who have used this facility to spy on students and even their families. The issue came to light when the Robbins's child was disciplined for "improper behavior in his home" and the Vice Principal used a photo taken by the webcam as evidence. The suit is a class action, brought on behalf of all students issued with these machines.

If true, these allegations are about as creepy as they come. I don't know about you, but I often have the laptop in the room while I'm getting dressed, having private discussions with my family, and so on. The idea that a school district would not only spy on its students' clickstreams and emails (bad enough), but also use these machines as AV bugs is purely horrifying.

Schools are in an absolute panic about kids divulging too much online, worried about pedos and marketers and embarrassing photos that will haunt you when you run for office or apply for a job in 10 years. They tell kids to treat their personal details as though they were precious.

your privacy is worthless and you shouldn't try to protect it.

Update: The school district admits that student laptops were shipped with software for covertly activating their webcams, but denies wrongdoing.

http://boingboing.net/2010/02/17/school-used-student.html

WOW!!! Sinister!

Wow. Talk about Big Brother.

thats bull!!!!!! they need to leave kids along.

Time for another revolution.

So you think it's the gubberment or just unethical people in a lone school district?

Why didn't anyone call for a revolution when the Dippic was tapping our phones.

This happened not far from me. They claim that only a couple people had the ability to activate the software at the school district and that it was used to keep track of the equipment. However a young girl noticed the green light going on that meant the webcam was activated and her laptop was neither missing or stolen. the district supposedly has deactivated the software but the lawsuits are going to really cost this school district. Unfortunately, the only ones who will be paying for the lawsuits are the same people that the lawsuits will protect. Its a no win situation for the taxpayers in that school district

Hussein is still tapping them.

Of course they are, but they are tapping suspects with court orders...he's following the FISA rules. Ever heard of that? Who would be against watching the suspects...legally.

Pfft....say anything.

i never buy any monitor or laptop with a built in cam.

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
AMEN TO THAT .
THIS COUNTRY IS FULL UP TO YOUR LIPS IN CROP PEOPLE . THATS WHATS WRONG WITH THE GOVERNMENT NOW . WE NEED A NEW OUT LOOK AND A LOT LESS PEOPLE WHO THINK THE LAWS ARE JUST A SMALL PROBLEM .

haha... We knew what we were getting with Bush, but wasn't Obama all about changing things? And by the way... If you think warrantless wiretapping isn't going on, you are mistaken..

Those would be the ones.

Of course, Obama only allows it for the criminals. He has absolute control over who does and doesn't get their phone tapped, you know.

Jewel v. NSA

Do a search of that case and read the Obama Justice Dept arguments. They are far worse than Bush..

And the Obama apologists will completely ignore EVERY word of it.

In Warrantless Wiretapping Case, Obama DOJ's New Arguments Are Worse Than Bush's

Commentary by Tim Jones

Friday evening, in a motion to dismiss Jewel v. NSA, EFF's litigation against the National Security Agency for the warrantless wiretapping of countless Americans, the Obama Administration's made two deeply troubling arguments.

First, they argued, exactly as the Bush Administration did on countless occasions, that the state secrets privilege requires the court to dismiss the issue out of hand. They argue that simply allowing the case to continue "would cause exceptionally grave harm to national security." As in the past, this is a blatant ploy to dismiss the litigation without allowing the courts to consider the evidence.

It's an especially disappointing argument to hear from the Obama Administration. As a candidate, Senator Obama lamented that the Bush Administration "invoked a legal tool known as the 'state secrets' privilege more than any other previous administration to get cases thrown out of civil court." He was right then, and we're dismayed that he and his team seem to have forgotten.

Sad as that is, it's the Department Of Justice's second argument that is the most pernicious. The DOJ claims that the U.S. Government is completely immune from litigation for illegal spying — that the Government can never be sued for surveillance that violates federal privacy statutes.

This is a radical assertion that is utterly unprecedented. No one — not the White House, not the Justice Department, not any member of Congress, and not the Bush Administration — has ever interpreted the law this way.

Previously, the Bush Administration has argued that the U.S. possesses "sovereign immunity" from suit for conducting electronic surveillance that violates the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA). However, FISA is only one of several laws that restrict the government's ability to wiretap. The Obama Administration goes two steps further than Bush did, and claims that the US PATRIOT Act also renders the U.S. immune from suit under the two remaining key federal surveillance laws: the Wiretap Act and the Stored Communications Act. Essentially, the Obama Adminstration has claimed that the government cannot be held accountable for illegal surveillance under any federal statutes.

Again, the gulf between Candidate Obama and President Obama is striking. As a candidate, Obama ran promising a new era of government transparency and accountability, an end to the Bush DOJ's radical theories of executive power, and reform of the PATRIOT Act. But, this week, Obama's own Department Of Justice has argued that, under the PATRIOT Act, the government shall be entirely unaccountable for surveilling Americans in violation of its own laws.

This isn't change we can believe in. This is change for the worse.

http://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2009/04/obama-doj-worse-than-bush

Of course, the easiest thing to do might be to return the school computers to the school, and buy your own computer for the kids. After all, it is school property. The only mistake made was the school didn't let the children and parents know they had access to it.

I agree. School property, school maintenance and tactics. But the extent of the access should have been disclosed to students and parents.

how's this any different than facebook