Students’ eye view of Webcam spy case
Thursday, February 25th, 2010Students at Harriton High School in Lower Merion School District near Philadelphia are given Apple MacBook laptops to use both at school and at home. Like all MacBooks, the ones issued to the students have a Webcam. And, in addition to the students’ ability to use the Webcam to take pictures or video, the school district can also use it to take photographs of whomever is using the computer.
In a civil complaint (PDF) filed in federal court, a student at the school, Blake Robbins, said he received a notice from an assistant principal informing him 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.”
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.”
Read the full article »
Tweet this!