[net-gold] EDUCATION: K-12: SCHOOLS : LAW: CASES : CRIMINAL INVESTIGATIONS : PRIVACY : CHILDREN : ESPIONAGE AND SURVEILLANCE : INTERNET: WEBCAMS: Subpoena Issued in Lower Merion Webcam Case
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- Date: Sat, 20 Feb 2010 13:02:13 -0500 (EST)
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Subpoena Issued in Lower Merion Webcam Case
Subpoena Issued in Lower Merion Webcam Case
Posted on Sat, Feb. 20, 2010
By Dan Hardy, Lydia Woolever, and Joseph Tanfani
Inquirer Staff Writers
Philadelphia Inquirer
<http://www.philly.com/philly/news/homepage/84835492.html>
Federal prosecutors have subpoenaed the Lower Merion School District for
documents related to the controversial use of remote-control cameras on
students' school-issued computers, The Inquirer has learned.
The grand jury subpoena, delivered yesterday, asked for a broad range of
records related to the so-called webcams and the security system that
district officials used to activate them, said a lawyer who had been
briefed about the matter. He spoke on the condition of anonymity.
School district spokesman Douglas Young said he could not comment last
night when asked whether such a subpoena had been received. Philadelphia
FBI spokesman J.J. Klaver cited the agency's policy of not confirming or
denying any pending investigation.
Word of the subpoena came as the elite suburban school district, through
Young, conceded that "notice should have been given" to families that the
district's computer system would snap photos of school laptop users - even
in children's homes - if the laptops were reported missing or stolen.
School technicians have activated that system 42 times this school year
when the district's laptops were reported missing or stolen, Young said.
He said parents and students should have been told clearly of the policy
in advance.
Young said the district had hired former federal prosecutor Henry E.
Hockeimer Jr. to "provide a comprehensive review of past practices and
policies, as well as assist us in implementing appropriate improvements."
The district's statements grew out of a lawsuit that has prompted
headlines across the country: a Penn Valley family's claim, filed Tuesday
in federal court, that Harriton High School's assistant principal had
confronted a 15-year-old son with a photo taken by the security system on
his school-issued laptop when he was using it at home.
"There was no specific notification given that described the security
feature," Young said. "That notice should have been given, and we regret
not giving it. That . . . was a significant mistake."
Feb. 20, 2010
School Officials Likened to "Peeping Toms"
Mom of Teen Viewed Remotely via Webcam Decries It; His Sister Says She and
Her Friends Are "Petrified" by It
CBS News
<http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2010/02/20/
earlyshow/saturday/main6226260.shtml>
A shorter URL for the above link:
<http://tinyurl.com/yep5c3p>
(CBS/AP) The family that sued to get a suburban Pennsylvania school
district to stop secretly viewing students at home via webcams on
school-issued laptops is blasting the practice, though it's been halted.
Officials of the Lower Merion School District, outside Philadelphia,
acknowledged Friday that they remotely activated webcams 42 times in the
past 14 months, but only to find missing laptops given to students. They
insist they never did so to spy on students, as the family of 16-year-old
Blake Robbins claimed in the federal lawsuit.
The district has suspended the practice amid the lawsuit and the
accompanying uproar from students, the community and privacy advocates.
And the family's lawyer, Mark Haltzman, told "Early Show Saturday Edition"
co-anchor Erica Hill he's been informed that the FBI has opened a criminal
investigation of the webcam use.
A source told The Associated Press the bureau is exploring whether the
district broke any federal wiretap or computer-intrusion laws.
<snip>
Blake Robbins, the teen at the center of the controversy, told Hill it all
began when Harriton High School administrators falsely accused him of
selling drugs and taking pills; then said they had webcam images to prove
it.
Blake says the pictures are of him eating candies.
Pennsylvania school official defended in webcam spy case
The Associated Press
Saturday, February 20, 2010; 11:59 AM
Washington Post
<http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/
2010/02/20/AR2010022000679.html?hpid=moreheadlines>
A shorter URL for the above link:
<http://tinyurl.com/yanjdjx>
PHILADELPHIA -- A suburban Philadelphia school district accused in a
lawsuit of secretly switching on laptop computer webcams inside students'
homes says one of its administrators has been "unfairly portrayed and
unjustly attacked."
Posted on Fri, Feb. 19, 2010
Montco DA to look into webcam claim
By Derrick Nunnally
INQUIRER STAFF WRITER
Philadelphia Inquirer
<http://www.philly.com/inquirer/breaking/news_breaking/
20100219_Montco_DA_to_look_into_webcam_claim.html>
A shorter URL for the above link:
<http://tinyurl.com/yl83dsb>
Montgomery County prosecutors will look into a lawsuit's controversial
claim that Harriton High School officials spied on a 15-year-old student
in his home via a camera on a school-issued laptop.
District Attorney Risa Vetri Ferman said this afternoon that her office
learned of the surveillance allegation from news reports yesterday, two
days after the student and his parents sued in federal court, claiming
their privacy had been invaded.
Ferman stopped short of saying an investigation had begun.
"We're going to be looking into the situation to see if a criminal
investigation is warranted," she said in a telephone interview.
February 19, 2010 7:55 PM PST
Students'-eye view of Webcam spy case
by Larry Magid
CNET News
<http://news.cnet.com/8301-30977_3-10457077-10347072.html>
The district said in a statement that the "security feature was installed
to help locate a laptop in the event it was reported lost, missing or
stolen so that the laptop could be returned to the student." The district
further explained that "upon a report of a suspected lost, stolen or
missing laptop, the feature was activated by the district's security and
technology departments. The tracking-security feature was limited to
taking a still image of the operator and the operator's screen." The
district claims it has "not used the tracking feature or Webcam for any
other purpose or in any other manner whatsoever."
Subsequently, district Superintendent of Schools Christopher W. McGinley
sent a letter to parents saying that the security tracking feature is
being disabled and that there will be "a thorough review of the existing
policies for student laptop use" and a "review of security procedures to
help safeguard the protection of privacy, including a review of the
instances in which the security software was activated."
February 19, 2010 - 6:10 A.M.
Child porn webcam allegations in PA school district
Computer World
<http://blogs.computerworld.com/15617/
child_porn_webcam_allegations_in_pa_school_district>
A shorter URL for the above link:
<http://tinyurl.com/yjz234m>
TAGS: Blake J Robbins, child pornography, Lower Merion School District,
PA, Philadelphia, porn, pornography, privacy
IT TOPICS: Careers, Cybercrime & Hacking, Desktop Applications, Government
& Regulation, Internet, Laptops & Netbooks, Macintosh & Apple, Security,
Software
Did a school in a Philadelphia suburb covertly spy on students in their
homes, via their webcams? In the case of Blake J Robbins v Lower Merion
School District (PA) et al, the District is alleged to be in a whole heap
of trouble: up to and including child pornography. In IT Blogwatch,
horrified bloggers pick up their pitchforks, light their flaming torches,
and march over to Harriton High School.
By Richi Jennings. February 19, 2010.
Your humble blogwatcher selected these bloggy morsels for your enjoyment.
Not to mention Apple's reflection-distortion field...
<snip>
Blog Selections Covered in This Article:
Cory Doctorow blogs disturbing allegations from the city of brotherly
love:
The school District Superintendent, Dr. Christopher McGinley retorts:
Jesus Diaz reports allegations that this wasn't an isolated incident:
Alex Pasternack has a sense of dvu:
But Mistlefoot is worried about child pornography:
Jud Pratt agrees:
And shogarth stresses the difference between criminal and civil:
Meanwhile, mcgrew studies the law of the jungle:
US school district spied on students through webcams, court
told
Pennsylvania district accused of using remote-control laptops to
photograph teenage students at home without their knowledge
Daniel Nasaw in Washington
Guardian.co.uk
Friday 19 February 2010 13.54 GMT
<http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/feb/19/
schools-spied-on-students-webcams>
A shorter URL for the above link:
<http://tinyurl.com/ykcwlp6>
A school district in Pennsylvania spied on students through web cameras
installed on laptops provided by the district, according to a class action
lawsuit filed this week.
Lower Merion school district, in a well-heeled suburb of Philadelphia,
provided 2,300 high-school students with Mac laptops last autumn in what
its superintendent, Christopher McGinley, described as an effort to
establish a "mobile, 21st-century learning environment".
The scheme was funded with $720,000 (468,000) in state grants and other
sources. The students were not allowed to install video games and other
software, and were barred from "commercial, illegal, unethical and
inappropriate" use.
The district retained remote control of the built-in webcams installed on
the computers and used them to capture images of the students, according
to a lawsuit filed in federal court this week.
The ruse was revealed when Blake Robbins, a student at Harriton high
school, was hauled into the assistant principal Lindy Matsko's office,
shown a photograph taken on the laptop in his home and disciplined for
"improper behaviour".
-----------------------------------------
The complete articles may be read at the URLs provided for each.
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