School spies on students with webcams
By Alexis • Feb 22nd, 2010 • Category: Uncategorized- Photo: Stock.Xchange
It has been discovered that the Pennsylvania school district in the United States has been spying on its students by activating the webcams on laptops they issued. This has prompted an investigation by the FBI.
Inappropriate behaviour
The alarm bells were first triggered when a teacher told a student he participates in ‘inappropriate conduct’ when he’s at home. This led to him probing how she knew this, and after much pressing she told him they had switched the webcam on his computer on remotely.
Security
- Photo: Wikimedia Commons
Once an uproar was sparked around this, the school district stated they only installed the software for security purposes, to monitor stolen or missing laptops. In addition, they volunteered further information, saying the times the monitoring occurred amounted to 42 instances, and all they received was images and no audio. In addition, only two people had clearance for flipping on a webcam on the district-issued laptops.
FBI doesn’t think it’s legal
After a nationwide outcry, the Federal Bureau of Investigation has become involved, unsure of the legalities of this type of monitoring. The ongoing investigation is expected to yield a conclusion on whether prosecution and litigation should follow. What’s more important, however, is the implications this judgment will have for privacy rights, one of the greatest concerns in the online community. If it is judged that the school district was well within legal bounds to monitor for ‘security’ reasons, the result could be that similar monitoring devices could become standard in computers with a webcam, meaning privacy would be even more undermined than it already is.
The question remains, whether the FBI should come down hard on the Pennsylvania school district and, if not, what does it mean if organisations can monitor us without our prior knowledge?
Tags for this article: Privacy, webcam
