Big Bro-cam is watching
Published 4:19 pm Thursday, February 18, 2010
A suburban Philadelphia school district has given a whole new meaning to “home schooling.” Unfortunately, “home spying” gives a whole new meaning to “invasion of privacy.”
A federal class action lawsuit charges that the Lower Merion School District has been spying on students and families via remotely activated webcams in laptops the schools issued to students.
The suit, filed on behalf of Harriton High student Blake J. Robbins and all Lower Merion students by Robbins’ parents Michael and Holly Robbins, alleges the remotely controlled cameras violate everything from the Fourth Amendment to wiretapping, electronic communications and computer fraud laws.
“Many of the images captured may consist of minors and their parents or friends in compromising or embarrassing positions, including various stages of undress,” the lawsuit alleges.
About 1,800 high school students in the district have been issued Apple laptops, part of a campaign funded through state and federal grants to provide all students with computers. A fine goal. Totally marred by the beyond-misguided, brain-cramping, Big Brotherish misuse of the technology the district made sure every student held in their hands and brought into their homes.
The district’s way of “looking into” problems was revealed on Nov. 11, when Harriton High’s Assistant Principal Lindy Matsko reprimanded Blake Robbins for “improper behavior in his home,” according to the lawsuit. Matsko cited as evidence a photograph from the Webcam on the boy’s school-issued laptop.
The Robbins’ suit claims that the district did not tell them that their son’s laptop webcam could be activated remotely and said there was no mention of the functionality in any of the documentation they received.
In a time when parents are trying to get their children to comprehend the true dangers of sharing too much information electronically, it’s a brutal lesson to learn that the students’ (and families’) privacy was potentially violated by the simple act of opening their laptops.
“Paranoia is knowing all the facts,” as Woody Allen said.
This is not about a student misusing a school-issued computer. This is about a student’s personal conduct at home, as recorded by a remote camera in a school-issued computer.
On Thursday, Lower Merion School District Superintendent Dr. Christopher McGinley explained on the district’s web site that the webcam feature was only 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. It has never been used for any other purpose, he writes. The feature, however, has been deactivated, he notes.
Or, in other words: Upon discovery, the spying has stopped.
