School used student laptop webcams to spy on them
Found on Boing Boing on Wednesday, 17 February 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 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.
So school officials secretly abused laptops to spy on children showing "improper behaviors" at home. Seems like they did not only violate their privacy but possibily broke wiretapping laws as well. And, depending on which "improper acts" they've recorded, there's a whole new level rolling in. Now that will end up in a real mess for some school officials; and they deserve it.