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We Teach the Children: School district watching students with webcams?

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Cheesetogo said:
Is there any proof that they were actually using this?
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From the article:
The complaint states: "On November 11, 2009, plaintiffs were for the first time informed of the above-mentioned capability and practice by the school district when Lindy Matsko ('Matsko'), an assistant principal at Harriton High School, informed minor plaintiff that the school district was of the belief that minor plaintiff was engaged in improper behavior in his home, and cited as evidence a photograph from the webcam embedded in minor plaintiff's personal laptop issued by the school district.
"Michael Robbins thereafter verified, through Ms. Matsko, that the school district in fact has the ability to remotely activate the webcam contained in a student's personal laptop computer issued by the school district at any time it chose and to view and capture whatever images were in front of the webcam, all without the knowledge, permission or authorization of any persons then and there using the laptop computer.
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Cheesetogo said:
Is there any proof that they were actually using this? I mean, I could see them having security software installed on all the laptops, and one of the abilities of the software being remote access, which in turn would allow for the use of the webcam.
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Read the OP

The student got in trouble for doing something at home and the principal presented pics as proof.
 
My opinion on this story is that not only should this be a class-action suit, but criminal charges should be brought up against anyone who on behalf of the school administration authorized this activity. If appropriate, these people should also be placed on sex offender lists (after all, students caught "sexting" are, and this situation is considerably worse).

The school board and everyone else on the part of the administration needs to have the fucking book thrown at them, hard.
 
Kadarin said:
My opinion on this story is that not only should this be a class-action suit, but criminal charges should be brought up against anyone who on behalf of the school administration authorized this activity. If appropriate, these people should also be placed on sex offender lists (after all, students caught "sexting" are, and this situation is considerably worse).

The school board and everyone else on the part of the administration needs to have the fucking book thrown at them, hard.
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I have no idea why that hasn't been done yet.
 
imagoon said:
Actually I can, there have been many schools issuing laptops now and I got some hands on experience with one of my cousins machine. The OS was 'locked down' and once I booted it to a Windows PE image (why they didn't password the BIOS I have no idea.) there was monitoring software on it that could grab screen shots and the like. It was very similar to the university that I went to where the support desk / teachers could take over and view your screen or 'disable' the machine etc.

My guess is the program had the ability to work the webcam and either a) they forgot to mention it. b) snooping administrator X did a "I wonder what this button does" on the monitoring system and went at it.
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lol cheap university stuff. The tracking software we put on our corporate laptops is completely hidden and you would never be able to disable it. although ours does not activate the web cam however we can send a command to wipe it including the BIOS.
 
imagoon said:
Well the uniy stuff was all school owned so I would imagine it would cause issues. However this laptop my cousin was givens was 'her's' at least that is the way the blurb on it sounded. I would imagine if you wiped it and started over it would work fine, just you wouldn't get any support from the school on it. Or they would just reimage it back with the snooping software.

I also found that a piece of electrical tape took care of the camera also...
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nope. wiping it does not work.
 
Kadarin said:
My opinion on this story is that not only should this be a class-action suit, but criminal charges should be brought up against anyone who on behalf of the school administration authorized this activity. If appropriate, these people should also be placed on sex offender lists (after all, students caught "sexting" are, and this situation is considerably worse).

The school board and everyone else on the part of the administration needs to have the fucking book thrown at them, hard.
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whut

Students caught sexting are placed on a sex offender list? What the fuck?

Are students caught talking about sex also placed on a sex offender list? WTF?

Good fucking God, I'm glad I'm not in school anymore. And I will find a way to send my kids to private school...

😱
 
Wait a second. The students are using school computers for illegal activity, the school catches them red handed, and somehow it's the school's fault that students are looking up porn and cracks?

Sorry but the school is right on this one. If you're using school property, you lose your right to bitch and complain.
 
ShawnD1 said:
Wait a second. The students are using school computers for illegal activity, the school catches them red handed, and somehow it's the school's fault that students are looking up porn and cracks?

Sorry but the school is right on this one. If you're using school property, you lose your right to bitch and complain.
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Read before you speak. This has nothing to do with looking up porn and warez on the computers. Obviously any kid stupid enough to do that should be busted.

This is about spying on children in their own home with a webcam that happens to be contained within a school-issued laptop.

It doesn't matter where or what the conditions of the webcam are. It has never been and will never be okay to spy on anybody in their own home without their consent(without a warrant), let alone minors.

😱
 
Eli said:
This is about spying on children in their own home with a webcam that happens to be contained within a school-issued laptop.

It doesn't matter where or what the conditions of the webcam are. It has never been and will never be okay to spy on anybody in their own home without their consent(without a warrant), let alone minors.
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consent: voluntarily taking the laptop home when you know it has a webcam and a microphone and has monitoring software installed on it.

Next you'll be like "Holy shit there are cameras at work? This violates me in every way! I never agreed to this, except for when I signed that document and voluntarily entered the building!"
 
ShawnD1 said:
consent: voluntarily taking the laptop home when you know it has a webcam and a microphone and has monitoring software installed on it.

Next you'll be like "Holy shit there are cameras at work? This violates me in every way! I never agreed to this, except for when I signed that document and voluntarily entered the building!"
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What part about "in your own home" do you not understand?

They can install as many cameras as they want at school and at work. Monitoring kids at home is an incredible violation of privacy. You have no expectation of privacy at work or at school; you do at home.
 
ShawnD1 said:
consent: voluntarily taking the laptop home when you know it has a webcam and a microphone and has monitoring software installed on it.

Next you'll be like "Holy shit there are cameras at work? This violates me in every way! I never agreed to this, except for when I signed that document and voluntarily entered the building!"
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I can understand your point, even agree somewhat. But this is a gubment agency, not volutary employment. Huge difference. Especially ones home or even thinking this was somehow a good idea.

Reasonable expectation of privacy applies here regardless.
 
I love how you guys are suggesting legal actions or new laws that would make potentially thousands of parents go to jail forever for doing the exact same thing.

Example. A parent will use VNC to check their home computer while they are at work. They will see that someone is looking at porn. Wanting to know who it is, they make the webcam take a picture and email it to themselves. The picture shows that it was his 17 year old daughter using the computer at the time, and for some reason she's not wearing a shirt or a bra. A co-worker sees this and calls the police. The parent is charged for distribution of child pornography, is raped in jail, and dies from HIV complications.

We should charge all of those school administrators with distributing child porn because they have no right to VNC into their own computers! :awe:


But this is a gubment agency, not volutary employment.
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True, but the same rules of consent apply. If you don't want people to monitor your activity, don't put yourself in a situation where your activities are being monitored. If you want to look at warez without risk of people VNCing your computer and using your webcam, do it on your own computer.
When I take a work laptop home with me, I sure as shit do not watch porn on it. Why? Because I know it's being watched. It's probably not as complicated as sound and video monitoring, but I know it has logs of everything I'm doing.
 
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This seriously blows my mind. Who do these people think they are? Even IF this wasn't setup by some perverts, what makes them think they have the right to do something like that?

My bet is the kid rolled a joint. Who fucking cares.
 
spidey07 said:
I can understand your point, even agree somewhat. But this is a gubment agency, not volutary employment. Huge difference. Especially ones home or even thinking this was somehow a good idea.

Reasonable expectation of privacy applies here regardless.
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Even voluntary employment, they'd have lawsuits up the wazoo if they were spying on employees with a work-supplied laptop's webcam. Monitoring software on what you actually do with the laptop is fine. This would be the same as work issuing you a cell-phone. You're not supposed to make personal calls with it but they go and activate the camera on it to spy on you.
 
ShawnD1 said:
I love how you guys are suggesting legal actions or new laws that would make potentially thousands of parents go to jail forever for doing the exact same thing.

Example. A parent will use VNC to check their home computer while they are at work. They will see that someone is looking at porn. Wanting to know who it is, they make the webcam take a picture and email it to themselves. The picture shows that it was his 17 year old daughter using the computer at the time, and for some reason she's not wearing a shirt or a bra. A co-worker sees this and calls the police. The parent is charged for distribution of child pornography, is raped in jail, and dies from HIV complications.

We should charge all of those school administrators with distributing child porn because they have no right to VNC into their own computers! :awe:
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Are you really this dense? lol

Your example is parenting. It is a parents right to be able to monitor their children.

It is not a strangers right to be able to monitor someone in their own home.

They can look through the computer logs all they want. It is down right illegal for them to turn the webcam on, and there is no way whatever evidence they found by doing so would be admissible in court. They had no warrant.

It was a blatant un-excusable invasion of privacy, and whoever is behind it should face serious penalties, regardless of their motives.
 
Eli said:
Your example is parenting. It is a parents right to be able to monitor their children.

It is not a strangers right to be able to monitor someone in their own home.
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You voluntarily took the laptop into your home. How is that not consent?

If you hand me a baby monitor and I take it into my house, am I allowed to sue you when I find out you were listening to it the whole time? I willingly took it, didn't I? Doesn't that mean I gave consent?
 
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