Family Sues School District After Laptop Webcam Used To Spy On Student

[Paroxysm]

http://www.allheadlinenews.com/arti...ct After Laptop Webcam Used To Spy On Student

Lower Merion, PA, United States (AHN) - A family filed a class-action lawsuit after their son's high school remotely activated the webcam embedded in his school-issued laptop, spied on him and accused him of engaging in "improper behavior" in the privacy of his home.


In the lawsuit, the family claims the assistant high school principal confronted their 15-year-old son with a photograph taken with his computer's webcam and accused him of improper behavior. The behavior was not specified.

Lower Merion School District officials have disabled the security system on all 1,800 of the computers distributed to students.

Michael and Holly Robbins are claiming damages in their suit against the district for using the webcam to spy on students and their families. The Robbins alleged the district's use of webcams resulted in theft of private information, invasion of privacy, unlawful interception and access to electronic communications.

The suit claims the district violated numerous state and federal laws, as well as the U.S. Constitution.

The Apple laptops came with a security feature that allowed district officials to remotely snap a photo of whoever was using the computer if the computer had been stolen. Some privacy experts say that remotely activating the webcam while a computer was in a home, even to catch a thief, would violate surveillance wiretap laws.

Although this case has been compared to a business spying on an employee through a company owned and issued computer or telephone, experts say that even in an office a worker must usually sign a waiver or acknowledgement of some sort.

Big Brother is watching.

 

[Alex The Great]

Don't care at all. My school can shut down a computer individually if needed. Alot of times, people's screen will have a pop up showing "Get Back To Work" Let them do what they want.

 

[Darthphere]

This is a total invasion of privacy. This seems like a slam dunk case.

 

[Majic Walrus]

Seems pretty straight forward invasion of privacy to me too.

 

[Manic]

I bet the assistant principal was some sort of pedo. Why else would he be casually spying on some 15 year old boy while he was at home, hmm?

 

[E-Man]

This is extremely sad. What kind of "improper behavior" was he doing? *********ing? I imagine that he was "caught" watching porn. What else do they expect 15 year olds to do anyway? You can't fight the hand.

 

[Majic Walrus]

What was the webcam for? You can't see the screen with a webcam but you can see what's on the screen without turning on a webcam.

 

[bgates87]

This is extremely sad. What kind of "improper behavior" was he doing? *********ing? I imagine that he was "caught" watching porn. What else do they expect 15 year olds to do anyway? You can't fight the hand.

They don't say what he was doing but that was the first thing that came to my mind too just by the way they put "improper behavior" in quotes. If that were the case though you'd think there would be a whole slew of other charges like sexual harassment or possession of child pornography or something along those lines, and none of those charges are mentioned. Maybe he was just doing drugs or drinking or something?

Edit: Wow, what a great topic for my 1000th post.

 

[C. Lee]

What was the webcam for? You can't see the screen with a webcam but you can see what's on the screen without turning on a webcam.

The article says it was to take snapshots of someone using it if stolen....but since it wasn't stolen, there should have been no need to take a snapshot except to snoop.

 

[Majic Walrus]

Exactly. There was no need for her to turn it on at all and nothing to "catch" him doing.

 

[Majic Walrus]

edit

 

[Wolfwood]

Damn, I love technology.

 

[katie_girl09]

Damn you, Apple!

 

[E-Man]

Exactly. There was no need for her to turn it on at all and nothing to "catch" him doing.

This is obviously true, but people are nosy. Especially when they have some kind of authority to go along with their Triple H sized noses. This lady isn't the first or last person to do this, but she's the dumbest for doing what she did.

 

[Majic Walrus]

This is obviously true, but people are nosy. Especially when they have some kind of authority to go along with their Triple H sized noses. This lady isn't the first or last person to do this, but she's the dumbest for doing what she did.

I mean I understand that she was obviously abusing her authority, but I really can't think of a motive beyond "*****".

 

[katie_girl09]

This is obviously true, but people are nosy. Especially when they have some kind of authority to go along with their Triple H sized noses.

You mean like some police officers? /baiting

 

[Majic Walrus]

You mean like some police officers? /baiting

Move along.

 

[E-Man]

Move along.

Does this mean that you're going to beat her Mr. Walrus?

 

[bgates87]

WTF, that gif is reversed. He keeps taking popcorn out of his mouth lol.

 

[E-Man]

lol I know. I figured I could really mess with someone's head.

 

[Majic Walrus]

Does this mean that you're going to beat her Mr. Walrus?

Only if she asks nicely.

 

[E-Man]

Katie's not nice though. She's sweet and all that good stuff, but she isn't nice. Remember that Canadians have a mean streak. I think it's because they're actually robots created by Dr. Light.

 

[katie_girl09]

Only if she asks nicely.

Brutality!

Save me, E-man!

 

[E-Man]

Brutality!

Save me, E-man!

This is turning out to be a cool day. I save the hot Canadian robot, and I get to fight a walrus police man. I just love an adventure!

 

[Majic Walrus]

Katie's not nice though. She's sweet and all that good stuff, but she isn't nice. Remember that Canadians have a mean streak. I think it's because they're actually robots created by Dr. Light.

Nah I haven't heard of excessive Canadian rapists numbers.

Brutality!

Save me, E-man!

Hah! I can take E-man.