JimboDaMan Posted February 19, 2010 Share Posted February 19, 2010 No excuse for this, none. It has virtually no usefulness in telling them what the computer is being used for. Any legitimate concerns can be adressed in a number of other ways that aren't likely to allow spying on children preparing for bed. I'll bet we're going to find out that this is not illegal though, because that's just where this country is these days. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Johnny Punani Posted February 19, 2010 Share Posted February 19, 2010 Eww, all I can picture is some greasy *** janitor down in some broom closet watching kids at home. Why does it have to be someone employed in the Custodial Arts? Bigot... :pfft: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Destino Posted February 19, 2010 Share Posted February 19, 2010 Note to all of you... don't get laptops with built in web cams. You've been warned. Anything that has a camera or a microphone can be potentially remotely activated. This school didn't write the software for this. Things that record, watch, and listen should always be purchased in a manner in which they can be packed up and moved away from the user. Consider a free tip and think about how many weirdos are out there. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
adam@section118 Posted February 19, 2010 Share Posted February 19, 2010 :doh:Who wouldn't? What does a 12 year old writing on a desk have to do with this? Was the principle spying on a 12 year old writing on a desk? I'm confused. Enlighten me. I don't know whether to laugh or cry. I do not know weather to laugh or cry at how you missed the whole point of my post. My reply was in response to the last line of your post which I will quote below So if you are on a company laptop in the confines of your own home and run a kiddie porn ring, the company has no recourse? And I bet this was a lone perpatrator. No chance the school would have authorized anything like this. Some IT dude has issues is all. But don't arrest him cause it might humiliate him. I was assuming that line was in response to the reaction of the 12 yr old girl getting arrested. If I was incorrect I apologize Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ned Flanders Posted February 19, 2010 Share Posted February 19, 2010 Note to all of you... don't get laptops with built in web cams. You've been warned. Anything that has a camera or a microphone can be potentially remotely activated. Webcams can be defeated with a simple piece of tape......or uninstalling the drivers, or flat out disconnecting the camera from the MB...... Most don't have built in mics.... What a effed up situation though Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LaxBuddy21 Posted February 19, 2010 Share Posted February 19, 2010 Yea I dont see how the school could justify doing something like this at all. How would you feel if you were an attractive female mother walking past the administration and not knowing who was checking you out in the privacy of your own home. This is just creepy creepy stuff and is the definition of over extending your authority. Just wait till the government decides to use peoples web cams. We already know they can activate your cell phone remotely and listen to whats going on around you. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dan T. Posted February 19, 2010 Share Posted February 19, 2010 A couple things. As to the question of why in the world would that feature be part of the laptops, the school superintendent claims the remote activation of the webcam was to be used only in the case of lost, stolen, or missing laptops. One parent is quoted as saying that every high school student in the district was issued a lap top. That's a hell of a nice perk for a students, aside from the whole spying on them while they dress thing. The students are now taping over the webcam lens. http://www.myfoxphilly.com/dpp/news/education/021810_School_District_Accused_Of_Spying_On_Students_At_Home_Over_Laptops Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Capt Rich Fla Posted February 19, 2010 Share Posted February 19, 2010 Why does it have to be someone employed in the Custodial Arts?Bigot... :pfft: Aww come on now. I didn't mean to insult the Costdodial Engineers among us. They just always gave me the creeps in school. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheGreatBuzz Posted February 19, 2010 Share Posted February 19, 2010 When I saw the title I was assuming it was the school monitoring what the kids use the computers for or something and some parent was blowing it way out of proportion. I guess I am just so used to seeing that kind of stuff. But once I read that they were using the webcams, that is pretty screwed up. I would like some more details though. Proof they were actually using the webcam and did not get the info from something the student did on the computer, was the kid using the webcam so the computer automatically started monitoring it, etc? I usually give the school officials a innocent until PROVEN guilty but this is hard to see how it could be innocent. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dan T. Posted February 19, 2010 Share Posted February 19, 2010 But once I read that they were using the webcams, that is pretty screwed up. I would like some more details though. Proof they were actually using the webcam and did not get the info from something the student did on the computer, was the kid using the webcam so the computer automatically started monitoring it, etc? I usually give the school officials a innocent until PROVEN guilty but this is hard to see how it could be innocent. From the article: [The parents] claim Lindy Matsko, an assistant principal at Harriton High School, spied on their son, Blake, at home by remotely activating the webcam on his laptop. The suit alleges that Matsko informed the boy that he was engaged in inappropriate behavior in his home, and cited as evidence a photograph from the webcam embedded in his laptop. The student told his parents about the incident, the suit claims, and the boy's father confronted Matsko. The suit claims Matsko acknowledged the school could start the webcam and take pictures whenever it wanted to. -- So the assistant principal had a photo of the kid snapped by the webcam. That's pretty damning evidence. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheGreatBuzz Posted February 19, 2010 Share Posted February 19, 2010 From the article:So the assistant principal had a photo of the kid snapped by the webcam. That's pretty damning evidence. And that is part of the parents CLAIM. I did say I had a hard time believing this was innocent though. the only way I can see this being justified is if it was made aware to the parents that ALL activity was subject to monitoring, the school didn't turn on the camera but the kid did and the computer recorded it, and the kid was doing something "unsafe" ie, taking inappropriate video. Note there is no evidence of this. However, there is no evidence, other then the parents claim, that this is not the case either. Again, I usually give school officials the benifiet of the doubt but in this case, the school needs some evidence that they didn't do anything wrong, and until I see that, I'm going to assume the school was WAY out of line. Edit: "The suit claims Matsko acknowledged the school could start the webcam and take pictures whenever it wanted to." Because I have little faith in any news agency these days, I would not be surprised if the above quote was twisted. It is possible that Matsko acknowledged it could be done with saying it was being done. I just would like more of the story. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Koolblue13 Posted February 19, 2010 Share Posted February 19, 2010 Well, there is more lazy parents than ever trying to tell teachers they are not raising their kids right, so they had to do something, when they were out of school. Seriously though, wow is that ****ed up and wrong. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aREDSKIN Posted February 19, 2010 Share Posted February 19, 2010 The school responds- Dear LMSD Parents/Guardians, Our history has been to go to great lengths to protect the privacy of our students, whether it comes to student health, academic or other records. In fact, many of you may remember the heated debate over whether to have security cameras monitor some of our food vending machines. Privacy is a basic right in our society and a matter we take very seriously. We believe that a good job can always be done better. Recent publicity regarding the District's one-to-one high school laptop initiative, and questions about the security of student laptops prompted our administration to revisit security procedures. Laptops are a frequent target for theft in schools and off school property. District laptops do contain a security feature intended to track lost, stolen and missing laptops. The security feature, which was disabled today, 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. Upon a report of a suspected lost, stolen or missing laptop, the feature would be activated by the District's security and technology departments. The security feature's capabilities were limited to taking a still image of the operator and the operator's screen. This feature was only used for the narrow purpose of locating a lost, stolen or missing laptop. The District never activated the security feature for any other purpose or in any other manner whatsoever. As a result of our preliminary review of security procedures today, I directed the following actions: * Immediate disabling of the security-tracking program. * A thorough review of the existing policies for student laptop use. * 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. We want to ensure that any affected students and families are made aware of the outcome of laptop recovery investigations. * A review of any other technology areas in which the intersection of privacy and security may come into play. We are proud of the fact that we are a leader in providing laptops to every high school student as part of our instructional program. But we need to be equally as proud of the safeguards we have in place to protect the privacy of the users, as well as to safeguard district-owned property while being used by students. We regret if this situation has caused any concern or inconvenience among our students and families. If you have any questions or concerns, please email us at info@lmsd.org. Additional information has been posted on our website, www.lmsd.org. Thank you for your time and attention. Sincerely, Dr. Christopher W. McGinley Superintendent of Schools Lower Merion School District http://www.lmsd.org/sections/news/default.php?t=today&p=lmsd_anno&id=1138 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheGreatBuzz Posted February 19, 2010 Share Posted February 19, 2010 The school responds-Dear LMSD Parents/Guardians, Our history has been to go to great lengths to protect the privacy of our .... http://www.lmsd.org/sections/news/default.php?t=today&p=lmsd_anno&id=1138 Sounds to me like having that feature makes sense. Now as to how that feature got turned on in this case, I'd like to see them address that. Or if it even happened and the kid made up/embellished the whole thing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TMK9973 Posted February 19, 2010 Share Posted February 19, 2010 The school response is lacking on one BIG gap. The asst principal approached a student about behavior he was doing at HOME! That is a contradiction of saying the security feature was ONLY used for lost laptops. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dan T. Posted February 19, 2010 Share Posted February 19, 2010 The school response is lacking on one BIG gap.The asst principal approached a student about behavior he was doing at HOME! That is a contradiction of saying the security feature was ONLY used for lost laptops. Exactly. Busted! .. and I mean the asst. principal, not the kid. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Koolblue13 Posted February 19, 2010 Share Posted February 19, 2010 Thank you school for being so concerned about my attractive 16 year old daughter, while she sits in here bedroom, in her pajamas. That was very thoughtful. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aREDSKIN Posted February 19, 2010 Share Posted February 19, 2010 The school response is lacking on one BIG gap.The asst principal approached a student about behavior he was doing at HOME! That is a contradiction of saying the security feature was ONLY used for lost laptops. Legal mitigation strategy perhaps. From another source- "While high school rumor mills are famously productive, the tech blog Gizmodo reported on Thursday that another student in the district claimed that some students had noticed the camera lights on their school-issued Apple laptops apparently turning on at random before the lawsuit was filed. According to the unnamed student: Frequently, the green lights next to our iSight webcams will turn on. The school district claims that this is just a glitch. We are all doubting this now." http://thelede.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/02/19/school-accused-of-using-webcam-to-photograph-student-at-home/?hp Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rocky21 Posted February 19, 2010 Share Posted February 19, 2010 The school system threw the Asst. principle under the bus with that press release. Hellllooooo lawsuit. Seriously how ****ed up is Philthydelphia? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dan T. Posted February 19, 2010 Share Posted February 19, 2010 Somewhat lost in all this is that, apparently, every fricking high school kid in that district gets a laptop to use from the school. That is an amazing perk to me. I assume that is extremely rare for a public school system to do - or maybe I am out of touch. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LaxBuddy21 Posted February 19, 2010 Share Posted February 19, 2010 Somewhat lost in all this is that, apparently, every fricking high school kid in that district gets a laptop to use from the school. That is an amazing perk to me. I assume that is extremely rare for a public school system to do - or maybe I am out of touch. Nah they usually give out cars to drive when you are a junior and senior as well Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bang Posted February 19, 2010 Share Posted February 19, 2010 Somewhat lost in all this is that, apparently, every fricking high school kid in that district gets a laptop to use from the school. That is an amazing perk to me. I assume that is extremely rare for a public school system to do - or maybe I am out of touch. It is an amazing perk. Unfortunately it came with a gigantic string attached. An unneccesary string, at that. There are better ways to track unauthorized use of the computer without spying with a camera. There are much better security devices in case of theft than a camera. ~Bang Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Larry Brown #43 Posted February 19, 2010 Share Posted February 19, 2010 It is an amazing perk. Unfortunately it came with a gigantic string attached. An unneccesary string, at that. There are better ways to track unauthorized use of the computer without spying with a camera. There are much better security devices in case of theft than a camera. Yeah, it's kind of like giving someone a free car to drive around in. Oh but by the way, there just happens to be a venemous snake under your seat. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dan T. Posted February 19, 2010 Share Posted February 19, 2010 It is an amazing perk. Unfortunately it came with a gigantic string attached. An unneccesary string, at that. There are better ways to track unauthorized use of the computer without spying with a camera. There are much better security devices in case of theft than a camera.~Bang No argument at all. The potential for abuse is astounding. But I just thought it an amazing sidebar that the school district equips all their students with laptops. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Larry Brown #43 Posted February 19, 2010 Share Posted February 19, 2010 By the way, that school district--Lower Merion--is where Kobe Bryant went to high school. He went to Lower Merion High School--not the exact school in question, but definitely that school district that's being discussed. I recall him coming out of Lower Merion High School when he entered the NBA draft. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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