[net-gold] EDUCATION: K-12: SCHOOLS : LAW: CASES : CRIMINAL INVESTIGATIONS : PRIVACY : CHILDREN : ESPIONAGE AND SURVEILLANCE : INTERNET: WEBCAMS: Lower Merion Webcam Issue is New Legal Territory
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- Date: Sun, 21 Feb 2010 08:09:19 -0500 (EST)
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Lower Merion Webcam Issue is New Legal Territory
Lower Merion Webcam Issue is New Legal Territory
By Larry King, Dan Hardy, and John Shiffman
Inquirer Staff Writers
Posted on Sun, Feb. 21, 2010
<http://www.philly.com/philly/education/84877027.html>
Even today, relatively few students can imagine their schools giving them
a computer to take home.
Fewer still can envision their schools using those devices to spy on them.
Yet that was the charge leveled in an explosive federal lawsuit filed last
week against the Lower Merion School District in its use of remote-control
cameras on those laptop computers.
Now federal prosecutors have subpoenaed the district, The Inquirer has
learned. The grand-jury subpoena, delivered Friday, sought records related
to the cameras and the system that district officials used to activate
them, said a person who had been briefed about the matter. He spoke on the
condition of anonymity.
School district spokesman Douglas Young, while declining to say if a
subpoena was received, said yesterday that the district would cooperate
with any investigation.
U.S. Attorney Michael Levy, who previously headed the office's computer
crimes unit, declined to comment. But one federal official offered a rough
outline of what investigators might be looking for.
"Among the allegations we would look at are whether any wiretap or
computer intrusion laws were broken," said the official, who spoke on
condition of anonymity. "We're just getting started. And at the end of the
day, we may not find any federal violations."
The wiretap law applies to audio, not video or still images. The intrusion
law bars unauthorized access to a computer with the intent to defraud,
cause harm, or invade privacy.
The case has riveted not only students and parents, but also privacy
experts who called it unprecedented - and perhaps a harbinger of the
future as the reach of technology expands beyond school walls.
"This is the first one where we've seen this scenario," said Lillie Coney,
associate director of the Electronic Privacy Information Center in
Washington. "This is definitely a new one."
Pennsylvanian school accused of spying on students
English.news.cn
2010-02-21 14:28:38
Xinhua News Agency
<http://news.xinhuanet.com/english2010/world/2010-02/21/c_13181875.htm>
The school gave away laptops to all its 1800 students, but the laptops
included webcams and the school also added spyware to them.
However, the documentation signed by students when they received the
laptops did not make it clear the webcams could be activated remotely,
according to the Washington Post.
The school district claimed that the security feature was merely an
attempt to locate a stolen or missing laptop.
A couple from Pennsylvania are suing the school district on behalf of all
the children and accused the school of invading their privacy, after their
son was told off by teachers for "engaging in improper behavior in his
home," with the evidence of an image from his webcam.
F.B.I. Queries Webcam Use by Schools
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published: February 20, 2010
New York Times
<http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/21/us/21spy.html>
The F.B.I. will look into whether any federal wiretap or
computer-intrusion laws were violated by Lower Merion School District,
said the official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity.
Spying defies belief
By Mark Gibbs
February 19, 2010 04:41 PM ET
Computer World
Security
<http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9159618/Spying_defies_belief>
Network World - What is it about large organizations that make it easy for
them to lose their collective minds? It seems that the news is full of
cases of this kind of lunacy that defy belief.
<snip>
But it turns out that somewhere on the administrative side of the district
someone had what they thought was a good idea. This good idea consisted of
adding software to the laptops that would allow school and administrative
staff to spy on students using (and I'm not making this up) the laptop's
Web cams! This meant that, any time the laptops were running and whether
the students were at school or at home, someone could see, hear and record
what the student was doing. Let me underline that: At any time.
First, you have to wonder how the district's administrators came to
conceive of this program. This district is not in some hick, back water
where no one would understand the issue; the two high schools in the
district are in wealthy neighborhoods with the kind of families that,
should they feel so moved, have the knowledge and resources to take people
to court for things like violation of privacy. So even the most nae
administrative wonk should have thought twice about this program but, no,
obviously that didn't happen.
Next, you have to marvel at the people who were tasked with making this
program work. Someone in authority had to have said to someone in IT, "We
want to spy on students through their new laptops how are we going to do
this?"
At this point, wouldn't you have thought the IT person might have said,
"Guys, do you understand what you're asking? Do you understand that it is
illegal?" That's what you'd think but, again, obviously that didn't
happen.
Schools switch off webcams allegedly snooping on students
Published On Fri Feb 19 2010
Lesley Ciarula Taylor
Staff Reporter
Toronto Star
<http://www.thestar.com/news/world/article/767429--schools-
switch-off-webcams-allegedly-snooping-on-students>
A shorter URL for the above link:
<http://tinyurl.com/yj7mssc>
Some students, angry at news of the alleged spying, have taped over the
laptop cameras and microphones.
Grade 10 student Tom Halperin described students as pretty disgusted and
pointed out his class recently read 1984, the George Orwell classic that
coined the term Big Brother.
This is just bogus, Halperin, 15, told The Associated Press as he left
Harriton High School with his taped-up computer. I just think its really
despicable that they have the ability to just watch me all the time.
The webcams would not be used again unless there were express written
notification to all students and family, superintendent Dr. Christopher
McGinley said in a statement.
Wendy Kaminer
Feb 19 2010, 5:06PM
Law
Spying on Students
The Atlantic
<http://correspondents.theatlantic.com/
wendy_kaminer/2010/02/_increasingly_ubiquitous_surveillance_is.php>
A shorter URL for the above link:
<http://tinyurl.com/y939aba>
Increasingly ubiquitous surveillance is enabled not just by its
invisibility but by the common refrain that people who have nothing to
hide have nothing to fear. I doubt that sentiment will prevail in
suburban Pennsylvania, where, according to a complaint recently filed in
federal district court, high school officials spied on students and their
families, in their homes, by remotely activating webcams on laptops issued
to over 2,000 students last year. (Even seasoned civil libertarians were
taken aback: "every time you think you've heard everything ..." my friend
Harvey Silverglate remarked).
<snip>
I'm not comparing the covert installation of cameras in a student's home
to the monitoring of her public, online (or off line) speech, exactly.
But Harriton's High School's alleged use of webcams is just a few steps
along a continuum of expanding official intrusions into the off campus
lives, and minds, of students. What is perhaps most striking about the
conduct alleged in the Harriton school case is the apparent obliviousness
of school officials to the wrongfulness, much less apparent illegality, of
their conduct.
Larry Magid
Technology journalist
Posted: February 18, 2010 07:50 PM
School issued laptop: Good. Webcam spying: Very bad
Huffington Post
<http://www.huffingtonpost.com/larry-magid/
school-issued-laptop-good_b_468230.html>
A shorter URL for the above link:
<http://tinyurl.com/yf5ew5t>
It's an unbelievable story. A suburban Philadelphia school district is
being sued in federal court for allegedly using webcams to spy on students
and their families at home. On its website, the Lower Merion School
District says that it was "one of the first school systems in the United
States to provide laptop computers to all high school students."
The parents of student Blake J. Robbins are suing the district, the school
board and the school superintendent for invasion of privacy for
"indiscriminate use of ability to remotely activate the webcams
incorporated into each laptop issued to students by the School District,"
according to the complaint* (PDF).
<snip>
The irony here is that the school district was being very progressive in
issuing laptops to students. Not only do school-issued laptops help reduce
the digital divide by providing computer access to all students, they can
greatly enhance students' educational experience by allowing teachers to
more easily integrate the use of software and the Internet into class
instruction. I applaud Lower Merion School District for being so
progressive as to issue machines to students but, of course, these
allegations -- if true -- are horrendous. While it makes sense for school
officials to be able to track stolen machines, it would be incredibly
wrong for them to use the tracking technology to spy on students. Even if,
as district officials claim, the technology is only used to help track
down lost or stolen machines, the mere ability of officials to peer into a
students' homes is way behind acceptable.
Complaint
<http://safekids.com/robbins17.pdf>
School Statement
<http://www.lmsd.org/sections/news/
default.php?m=0&t=today&p=lmsd_anno&id=1137>
A shorter URL for the above link:
<http://tinyurl.com/yff9eye>
------------------------------------
The complete articles may be read at the URLs provided for each.
WEBBIB0910
Sincerely,
David Dillard
Temple University
(215) 204 - 4584
jwne@xxxxxxxxxx
<http://daviddillard.businesscard2.com>
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