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[azalel]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/us_laptops_spying_on_students

This is frightening.  What is even more frightening is that the school does not think it did anything wrong.

[der Wandersmann]

Black electrical tape.

[Ludovico]

I saw this yesterday - amazing. However, laptops need to be monitored, so it is a problem.

[azalel]

I agree that they need to be monitored, but the article does not mention that the laptop was stolen.  It says there was no mention of the laptop being stolen.

My problem is that they took it upon themselves to spy on the kid without first informing the parents and obtaining permission. If they felt he was doing something wrong to the computer, they should have informed the parents and taken it back for inspection. If there was no hint of wrongdoing concerning the laptop - but they thought he was breaking the law (dealing drugs) - the should have involved the police rather than invade the student's privacy. 

I like DW's electrical tape suggestion.

[t'Sade]

http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2010/02/school-district-halts-webcam-surveillance/
http://www.boingboing.net/2010/02/19/school-district-admi.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+boingboing%2FiBag+%28Boing+Boing%29&utm_content=Google+Reader
http://www.boingboing.net/2010/02/17/school-used-student.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+boingboing%2FiBag+%28Boing+Boing%29&utm_content=Google+Reader

There are a few more postings about this. I've been sitting on them for a while, but the news broke earlier this week. The major points are that the school gave free laptops to 2600+ (?) students and they have protection software on them. Basically, "in the event of theft, it will take a picture of the laptop and whoever is in front of it." However, they didn't tell anyone there was such software on it. And then a teenage boy got dragged into the prinicples office for something he did at home (according to the class action lawsuit, haven't read that) that was taken from the laptop.

Now, the school says they only activate this feature in case of theft. They also frantically stepped back--probably after a ton of students returned said laptops--but the damage is done. It wasn't because of theft.

But, there is the entire problem of schools controlling students outside of school grounds. I posted some time about a 19 and 17 year old posing naked on their myspace space, but a school-hired monitor caught them. The monitor basically trolled student's facebook and myspace pages, looking for things inappropriate for school children.

There is also some recent legal stuff dealing with how far a school can handle it. Some recent court cases are going up the chain where students created fake MySpace pages for their teachers or principles, then got suspended. To make things more complicated, one court of appeals said the school was in the right, the other said the school was wrong. So, its going to be a messy time for students in the coming years.

[Ludovico]

Basically, an entire new area of law has been opened up - makes the old 'searching lockers' problem minor. My guess this is going to lead to a lot more bureacracy - parents needing to sign waivers, agree to conditions, etc.

School officials tend to exceed their authority whenever given a chance. Getting back to our zero tolerance argument, how about that 12 yr old who was led away in handcuffs for doodling on her desk? 

[t'Sade]

http://www.boingboing.net/2010/02/23/aclu-and-eff-on-scho.html
http://blog.laptopmag.com/aclu-and-eff-speak-out-against-school-webcam-spying

"There is no federal statute that criminalizes or creates civil liability for such secret videotaping unless it involves sound, because then it is an intercept of a verbal communication. So no one can plant a bug in your house without violating wiretapping law, but they can still plant a camera without violating federal wiretapping laws," he said. "That's something that congress should address particularly now that everyone potentially has a surreptitious video device staring them in the face when they're at their laptop."

http://www.boingboing.net/2010/02/22/school-spying-infect.html
http://strydehax.blogspot.com/2010/02/spy-at-harrington-high.html

A pretty good link to an article about the spying software and pretty much suggests that the school knew what it was doing, even recording stuff outside of the "theft" they talked about.

http://www.boingboing.net/2010/02/22/fbi-investigating-lo.html
http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/Parenting/pennsylvania-school-webcam-students-spying/story?id=9905488

Apparently, the FBI is jumping on the bandwagon against the school to determine if they broke the law by recording their students outside of school properly.

http://www.boingboing.net/2010/02/22/laptop-surveillance.html
http://reason.com/blog/2010/02/20/lower-pervian-school-district

And the thing that apparently started this all?

The boy was charged with an undisclosed infraction based on an image the school picked up from his webcam. District superintendent Christopher W. McGinley, in an orotund statement, defends the program while canceling it. And just to make clear that we're still in high school, Master Robbins appears to have gotten in trouble when he was photographed eating Mike and Ikes.

Now, I think that we are getting all offended by this, but I have a theory that the next time it happens, it won't be as big of a deal. And the third, then the fourth... even less. Eventually, I think this will become a common place unless people keep fighting it. It will be interesting to see how this all turns out.

[der Wandersmann]

Heard on an NPR feature news article ... I forget which program ...  Philadelphia students are covering the webcams on their laptops with black electrical tape (paraphrased).

Kinda makes a man feel he's done some good.

[Ludovico]

Naturally, students will find a way around it once they are aware. Look at all the ingenious  ways they use to cheat. Now, we must ask ourselves what would Ferris Bueller do? 

[KK]

He'd probably find a way to replace his headmistress laptop with his own, activate the camera when she does something... embarrassing... and then broadcast the record of it to the laptops of every student and public TV. 

[t'Sade]

http://www.boingboing.net/2010/10/14/webcam-spying-school.html
http://www.engadget.com/2010/10/13/webcam-spying-school-district-settles-out-of-court-fbi-declines/
http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20101012/10365311390/spying-school-district-pays-out-610-000-to-settle-lawsuit-mostly-to-the-lawyers.shtml
http://www.engadget.com/2010/02/20/spying-school-district-update-turned-on-webcams-42-times-fbi-i/
http://www.engadget.com/tag/lowermerionschooldistrict

Been a bit since I posted on this, but it looks like the school district settled out of court. And, the FBI decided they weren't going to push the issue. Interestingly, the reason the FBI isn't going to press is because they can't figure out if it is illegal or not. If we did for the issue, then it would hamper the school's ability to control students outside of the school ground. Around here, there is actually a lot of outside of school control by schools, including suspensions for any arrests due to drinking.

We've been following the case in suburban Philadelphia of the Lower Merion School District, which was sued by a student for spying on the student in his home with district issued laptops (the kid was disciplined for supposedly using drugs, with the evidence being a photo of him in his room at his laptop -- the kid claims he was just eating Mike & Ikes candy). While the district initially denied it was spying on students, later reports found 58,000 images were taken, including 469 of another student who also sued.

While the feds declined to bring criminal charges, it looks like the school district has now settled the outstanding lawsuits mainly by giving the lawyers a big chunk of money. In total, the school district paid out $610,000, with $425,000 going to the lawyers. The student who brought the first case will get $175,000, and the student in the second case will get $10,000 (the article mistakenly suggests two separate payments of $185,000, but I believe that's wrong). The district, in its announcement admits that, in total, this whole thing is costing about $1.2 million, which is actually being covered by insurance.

The sad part of this is that last paragraph. Of the $610k, $425k went to the lawyers. It is amazing how much the lawyers got out of it, instead of the students who had their personal lives and bodies dragged through the mud by what the school did.

It seems like lawsuits like this are effectively the ecosystem for lawyers (I know and love the lawyers who are on this site). They got to go in, sweep through everything, and come out smelling like roses, but when you see 2/3rds going to protect the rights of students... and only two students actually got compensation for their privacy being torn to shreds. What about the hundreds of other students that were recorded?

I don't know if it is right or wrong. When you just look at the final accounting, it seems... drastic and greedy.