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News & ArtsMonday, April 19, 2010
News The Spy Who Flunked Me, Cont.
Posted by Dan Savage on Mon, Apr 19, 2010 at 7:56 AM
Someone's going to jail:
Remember the lawsuit filed by the family of 15-year-old Blake Robbins against the school district that spied on him at home via webcam? The latest news comes from a motion filed by the Robbins family claiming that the school took more than 400 photos of Blake in his room—some while sleeping and others while he was "partially undressed."According to the motion filed Thursday, the Robbins family said that it was only aware of a handful of images being captured at the time the lawsuit was filed back in February. Now, thanks to the court order asking the district to preserve evidence on all school-issued computers, the family has discovered more than 400 photos of Blake alone, not to mention the "thousands" more taken of other students in their homes. In addition to these photos of students doing private things in their rooms, the school district also allegedly took screenshots of IM conversations they were having with friends.... The school district has always argued that it only turned on the webcams in the event that a laptop appeared to be lost or stolen, but the Robbins argue that there were numerous cases in which the school spied on students despite knowing exactly who had the laptops—sometimes, students absentmindedly forgot to return their computers on time or failed to pay the $55 insurance fee in a timely manner. The latter was the case for Blake; the school says it initially spied on him because he failed to pay the fee, though there appears to be no explanation as to why the IT staff watched him for at least two full weeks before he ended up getting disciplined for "improper behavior" at home.
1
Yanno, my normal tactic would be to parse out the legal issues here (child pornography, possible 4th amendment violations - seeing as this is a public school - etc.), but right now all I can say is "WHAT THE EVERLOVING FUCK."
2
I imagine the IT staff directly responsible, whichever administrator(s) authorized the activities--if any did, and anyone who forwarded such images in their mail system are at risk of jail time. Which is good.
4
Because there's a difference between a teenager taking a picture of him or herself and sharing it with another teenager and a school administrator secretly taking pictures of teenagers in their bedrooms at night and passing them around the office.
5
It's such a surprise all this happened. Who ever could have dreamed that such a neat system for tracking missing laptops could possibly go wrong? I certainly don't recall any other cases of secretly putting cameras in teenagers rooms and piping the pictures so technicians in a room somewhere leading to any sort of trouble at all.
12
I'm not the least bit surprised.
I worked for a large media company. They allowed their IT department to run unchecked and unmonitored by anyone else in the company. This is what happens when you do that.
School, companies have to understand they NEED someone wathcing their IT department. And they should never be given free reign. They should be required to explain what they want to do and then should have to get permission to do these whatever it is.
Never, never, never let the computer guys have complete control of your systems.
I worked for a large media company. They allowed their IT department to run unchecked and unmonitored by anyone else in the company. This is what happens when you do that.
School, companies have to understand they NEED someone wathcing their IT department. And they should never be given free reign. They should be required to explain what they want to do and then should have to get permission to do these whatever it is.
Never, never, never let the computer guys have complete control of your systems.
13
Fucking MORONS. Even aside from it being a simple matter of invasion of privacy, the mere suggestion of webcams + student bedrooms should have made the school administrators run screaming in the other direction, much less actually implementing the program.
14
soooooooo soooooooooooo creepy.
and if the school is that worried about students losing/stealing laptops, then make them come in, sit at a desk and use a desktop. you know, old school.
and if the school is that worried about students losing/stealing laptops, then make them come in, sit at a desk and use a desktop. you know, old school.
17
You really have to wonder who the hell is running schools in America. First it's total ignorance of the First Amendment, then it's spying on children in their bedrooms. It's almost like the Vatican was in charge.
18
I hope I'm wrong, but based on court decisions about school newspapers and locker searches, I predict this will end up with no criminal liability for the school. Students have really limited civil rights and they seem to have more taken away every year.
19
am i the only one that is super pissed this school district handed out laptops to begin with? the school district i grew up in has to pass yearly levies to afford just textbooks and basic supplies and I once suffered through an entire year of backed up sewer gas making an entire floor smell. this is a public school!!!! it pisses me of SO DAMN MUCH that there are such gaping disparities between public school systems
but yeah, they're dicks for spying, too
but yeah, they're dicks for spying, too
20
I am surprised that the obvious hasn't been pointed out: anyone can spy on another using the same kind of tracking software. Who would that be? Just about any law enforcement group. Your webcam is an invitation by authorities to invade your privacy. For your own safety I advise you to cover the damn thing with a piece of tape ( at the very least) so no one can spy on you.
The technology to track, listen and watch people is why I don't use a cell phone or have a webcam and never will.
What these people have done is given in to the temptation to snoop. We all need to be taught that it's none of our business what others do in private.
The technology to track, listen and watch people is why I don't use a cell phone or have a webcam and never will.
What these people have done is given in to the temptation to snoop. We all need to be taught that it's none of our business what others do in private.
21
@14 "and if the school is that worried about students losing/stealing laptops, then make them come in, sit at a desk and use a desktop. you know, old school."
But that eliminates the unfair advantage that students whose parents can fork over the insurance fee get over those whose parents are struggling to keep food on the table. And frankly, I always preferred really really old-school approaches to schoolwork - I've always used paper-and-pen, even for courses in computer science, without any difficulties whatsoever.
But that eliminates the unfair advantage that students whose parents can fork over the insurance fee get over those whose parents are struggling to keep food on the table. And frankly, I always preferred really really old-school approaches to schoolwork - I've always used paper-and-pen, even for courses in computer science, without any difficulties whatsoever.
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