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School officials continue dodging questions about webcam surveillance
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The following comments relate to this news article:
article published on 23 February, 2010
After the lawsuit over Harriton High School's alleged webcam surveillance triggered an FBI investigation, you would hope school officials would come clean about what they characterize as completely legitimate security activities. Yet Lower Merion School District's response to parents seems to raise more questions than it answers.
In a statement on the district's website, Superintendent ... [ read the full article ]
Please read the original article before posting your comments.
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biglo30
Senior Member
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23. February 2010 @ 12:21 |
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They don't want to comment because know what they did was wrong.
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wanttono
Junior Member
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23. February 2010 @ 12:41 |
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Maybe , + legal procedings ongoing + I personally think it is a good idea IF followed up through legal channels.. and inform the parents students and get signed OK .. etc etc the parents/students are responsible for the pc ..
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beanos66
Member
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23. February 2010 @ 12:44 |
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it's taking too long, for the last 2 weeks the people with access have been deleting, formatting and 7passDODing their hard drives in an attempt to wipe the images of school kids in their bedrooms.
the parents should have gone straight to the feds and the feds should have organised a midnight raid
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Staff Member
2 product reviews
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23. February 2010 @ 12:49 |
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Originally posted by wanttono:
Maybe , + legal procedings ongoing + I personally think it is a good idea IF followed up through legal channels.. and inform the parents students and get signed OK .. etc etc the parents/students are responsible for the pc ..
The parents and students are already responsible for the PC or else it isn't allowed off campus. In order to take it off campus they first have to pay a $55 insurance premium. If it gets stolen while off campus they're also on the hook for the $100 deductible.
The ongoing legal issues shouldn't matter. If the school has a policy it's the public's right to know what the policy is. The fact that the policy may be illegal doesn't give them the right to lie to parents. And make no mistake, this line of BS is a lie by ommission.
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jony218
Suspended due to non-functional email address
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23. February 2010 @ 13:22 |
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If the computers belong to the school they can do whatever they want with them, install whatever software they want.
If people don't want to be spied on, don't accept anything from the government, buy your own laptop.
Just like your boss can read your emails from your company issued computer or find out who you been calling on the company cellphone or where your driving the company vehicule.
School equals government, government equals spying on people. Accept responsibility for your own privacy, don't expect the government to respect your privacy. It's a given that the government spies on people, someone correct me if I'm wrong.
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slickwill
Member
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23. February 2010 @ 13:40 |
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"Using the webcam in case of theft" is just some pretext, and excuse to really spy on the students.
The schools got these laptops from the government through a government grant, so it's not really the schools, but the government that is doing the spying. This type of spying is just another way to watch us.
This article from prisonplanet.com explains more about how this incident is just a small part of a ever growing plan that the government is implementing.
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Staff Member
2 product reviews
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23. February 2010 @ 13:50 |
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Originally posted by jony218:
If the computers belong to the school they can do whatever they want with them, install whatever software they want.
Installing whatever software they want doesn't equate to doing anything they want. Accepting a laptop from a public school doesn't negate your 4th amendment rights. Video surveillance without a warrant in places you have a reasonable expectation of privacy, including your home and certain locations in almost any building, whether public or private, has been ruled by the courts to violate the 4th amendment.
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If people don't want to be spied on, don't accept anything from the government, buy your own laptop.
The students at this school are required to use school provided laptops for schoolwork.
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Just like your boss can read your emails from your company issued computer
Corporate email isn't warrantless surveillance in a private residence. It also requires that you sign an agreement to let your employer read personal emails, otherwise it isn't legal. That's why such an agreement is standard for pretty much any business that provides you with an email address.
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or find out who you been calling on the company cellphone or where your driving the company vehicule.
To the best of my knowledge no one has suggested the school doesn't have a right to determine where the laptops are or look at a student's browsing history. We're talking about video surveillance, which isn't even slightly analagous to tracking the computer's location or what other computers it has communicated with.
Neither the parents nor the students were ever told that the school could spy on their activities, and even if they had been it would still be illegal to do so. Schools provide books to students all the time. Are you suggesting it would be legal for them to put a hidden camera in a textbook and transmit video from inside your house? After all you have a school issued textbook.
This message has been edited since posting. Last time this message was edited on 23. February 2010 @ 13:51
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Member
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23. February 2010 @ 14:10 |
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If my web cam light goes on for no reason im getting the tape but hey im kinda paranoid.
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wanttono
Junior Member
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23. February 2010 @ 15:02 |
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Tried and convicted! .. what a great system we have!
The ongoing legal issues shouldn't matter. If the school has a policy it's the public's right to know what the policy is. The fact that the policy may be illegal doesn't give them the right to lie to parents. And make no mistake, this line of BS is a lie by ommission
Freedom of speech is ultra important so stupid people will make their stupid statements so we know how stupid they are.
- Ted Nugent.
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Staff Member
2 product reviews
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23. February 2010 @ 15:54 |
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Originally posted by wanttono:
Tried and convicted! .. what a great system we have!
I wasn't aware Afterdawn was a court of law.
And you don't have to be a fireman to know when somebody is blowing smoke up your backside.
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Junior Member
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25. February 2010 @ 07:41 |
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I bet the school's IT department is thinking "Wish we had thought of suggesting a GPS location system instead..."
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