School 'Used Webcams To Spy On Pupils'

daveza

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http://news.sky.com/skynews/Home/Wo..._Students_Through_In-Built_Cameras_on_Laptops

A school in the US has been accused of spying on its students by remotely activating cameras built into their laptops.

The case has outraged parents and pupils at Harriton High School in suburban Philadelphia and raised serious questions about privacy and ethics.
Parents of one child have filed a lawsuit against the school district in Pennsylvania.
They say staff told them the camera on the school-issued laptop had caught their son doing something "inappropriate" at home.
Other parents said they were furious.
While we can always say there's no privacy in the internet age, I think we have to hit the point where we say this has gone too far.

"This laptop is part of our life 24/7, it is open all the time," said Karen Gotlieb, who has a daughter at the school.
"I just received an email from my daughter, who is very upset, saying 'Mum, I have that laptop open in my bedroom all the time, even when I'm changing'."
Pupils say they are horrified at the thought that staff could look into their home life.
Carlee Pons said: "It was nerve-wracking to see that green light go on.
"Some kids were really worried to the point of tears, calling their parents, freaking out and I know parents were definitely outraged by this."


Another student Tom Halpern said: "We just read '1984' this year. I don't think they should be able to get into our business like this. It just doesn't seem fair."
The school district says it will fight the lawsuit. It says cameras were only ever activated to track its 2,300 laptops only if they were reported missing, lost or stolen.

"The security feature's capabilities were limited to taking a still image of the operator and the operator's screen," Superintendent Christopher McGinley said in a letter to parents.

Attorney Amy Feldman said: "This has gone so far that, while we can always say there's no privacy in the internet age, I think we have to hit the point where we say this has gone too far."

Students are taking their own direct action - putting sticky-tape over the camera lens.

Right - if the cameras were only activated when missing or stolen then how did they know the guy was ' doing something inappropriate '.

I hope they sue the school for plenty.
 
thats bad! I bet there were some pedo's fapping when the girls or guys were changing.
O and if the cameras were only activated wen missing or stolen then why are they sometimes turned on during the day and ya how did they know the boy was doing something inappropriate
 
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Reminds me of how a guy helped out the girls at his school by fixing their PCs/laptops while installing programs so he could log on and watch them through their webcams
 
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