Beware free laptops from your kid's school

[jsinger]

"Parents in the US have accused a school of spying on children by remotely activating webcams on laptops.

"They say their son was told off by teachers for "engaging in improper behaviour in his home" and that the evidence was an image from his webcam."

[news.bbc.co.uk...]

[mack]

That is crazy!

They claim the "security feature" was only ever used to help trace a lost or stolen computer, but...

their son was told off by teachers for "engaging in improper behaviour in his home"

How can they claim it was only ever activated for security purposes, yet tell a kid off for an action in his home.

I think the importaint issues here are, who activated it, why and how often?

A school of all places should know not to mess with a kids privacy.

Mack.

[jsinger]

kids privacy.

The privacy of anyone in front of the camera. I'm sure those home laptops sometimes ended up in the parents' bedroom. I guess it could also pick up sound.

[rj87uk]

That's well dodgy! and to think people are kicking up a fuss about full body scanners in airports?

People really need to get their priorities straight.

[Demaestro]

According to BoingBoing not only did they discipline him for "improper behavior in his home" the Vice Principal used a photo taken by the webcam as evidence!

I also saw on gizmodo that students had asked the IT guy about the green lights next to the iSight webcams would just turn on. The school district IT guy claimed that it was just a glitch.

I swear if that happened to me I would put a brick through the principles window with a note on it that read

"Now you know how it feels to have your home violated"

[Demaestro]

There is an update on gizmodo, the school district sent out a letter to the parents.

It is kind of a cheesy letter that tries to dress this up as a security feature and that is was only used once during a stolen laptop report.

It doesn't address the lawsuit or the fact that students had been complaining of webcam lights turning on for over a year.

[gizmodo.com...]

[Old_Honky]

I think the vice principal should be investigated by the authorities. Any adult who secretly watches pictures of children in their bedroom where, even if they are not behaving in a way that this person thinks is "improper", they could be walking around naked, is surely committing an offence and should be behind bars and also put on the sex offenders register or whatever the US equivalent is.