I know a few chicks at school I need to start lending laptops to.
The school has no legal right to use a webcam this way any more then Local Computer Laptop Rentals R Us has the right.
This case is a slam dunk. And not just as a civil suit, as criminal case as well. That principle could go to jail for this.
Could and should, but won’t. In fact nothing will happen. If they can strip search a student looking for advil I doubt the possibility of spying with a webcam will be a problem.
I just saw this article today. Holy WTF Batman. Which IT idiot did they put in charge there in the school system?
You can’t send a principle to jail.
A principle is something you believe in.
A principal is your pal in school!
(See the difference; that’s how they taught how to remember how to spell it.)
uhm… it was a metaphor?
You joke, but we count on the man to maintain our children’s purity of essence, and I think we should be cutting him a little slack on his tactics.
And another thing: it isn’t inconceivable that they’re out there, but I don’t think I’ve seen a laptop with a built-in webcam that didn’t also have a light-up LED to let you know when it was on - I thought the manufacturers put that in for this very reason.
Yeah, I’d be interested to know what they actually discplined the child for. If it was for stealing someone’s bookbag and laptop, I would understand how an administrator would think it was okay to open up the secret spy cam app. Still not okay, but I can at least follow the logic.
Yeah, apparently some kids asked why the green light on their laptop was going on randomly and the school said it was a technical glitch. Oops!
It’s called surreptitious recording guys. Look it up. PA law forbids it unless both sides are aware. Federal law has very explicit definitions about it as well. It includes “computer data transmission.”
It does not matter who owns the laptop. It does not matter if it was with good intention. It’s against the law. I don’t care what the school’s intentions were, they should have known better than that, or at a minimum, should have asked someone who did.
My Lenovo tablet doesn’t have such an LED on its built-in webcam.
Well, Orwell was only off by 26 years.
Here is a bit from that article. Bold mine.
The suit says that in November, assistant principal Lynn Matsko called in sophomore Blake Robbins and told him that he had “engaged in improper behavior in his home,” and cited as evidence a photograph from the webcam in his school-issued laptop.
I’m not sure if the possessive there is accurate, but it doesn’t seem to be a case of a stolen laptop (which would still be illegal).
You know what would make a great story? If all these parents smashed the laptops on the sidewalk in front of the school. That would be a great image for the media.
For the record, if you steal something, you don’t get to cry foul when the thing you stole turns you in. Give me a break, I’m a defense attorney and even I know that.
I don’t think it was stolen, either. But expect stolen items to report themselves as such with increasing regularity, and expect them to attempt to ascertain your identity. The one thing you should not expect, going forward, is privacy.
I wasn’t aware from the original story that it was a stolen laptop? Did I miss that? I thought it was just a school supplied laptop, donated through funding to the school.
George W. Bush thought you could.
We don’t know this and no article has elaborated. Purely speculation.
If both sides are aware of your surreptitious recording, I think you might be doing it wrong.