Friday, February 26, 2010

Remember when teachers only had extra eyes ...in the back of their heads?

UPDATES
• The lawsuit.
• Detailed technical insights on how this was accomplished.
• The Federal Bureau of Investigation is now investigating whether the school broke any federal wiretap laws when it remotely spied on a student at home, an anonymous official told the Associated Press.
• A federal grand jury has also subpoenaed the school for records related to the so-called "security" measures implemented on the laptops that allowed officials to activate the webcams to see people using them, according to the Philadelphia Inquirer.
• County DA - "We're going to be looking into the situation to see if a criminal investigation is warranted.
• A federal judge ordered the Pennsylvania school district to stop activating the cameras.


PA - A suburban Philadelphia school district remotely activates the cameras in school-provided laptops to spy on students in their homes, a lawsuit filed in federal court Tuesday (2/11/10) alleged...

Michael and Holly Robbins of Penn Valley, Pa., said they first found out about the alleged spying last November after their son Blake was accused by a Harriton High School official of "improper behavior in his home" and shown a photograph taken by his laptop.

An assistant principal at Harriton later confirmed that the district could remotely activate the webcam in students' laptops. (more) ("How Television Benefits Your Children")