A Pennsylvania school is being sued for loaning laptops to students and using their web cameras to spy on kids at home.
BoingBoing reports on the class action lawsuit of Blake J. Robbins v. Lower Merion School District, in which a student was accused of "improper behavior" after school administrators remotely flipped on the webcam of a laptop they loaned to him. The lawsuit claims that all high school students in the district were given a laptop, ostensibly to give them constant access to school resources.
There was no documentation that said the students' activities could be monitored through the webcam, the lawsuit claims. Robbins found out in November, when an assistant principal accused him of "improper behavior in his home," and furnished a picture taken from the webcam as proof. Administrators confirmed that they're able to flip on the webcam at any time, letting them see whatever's happening in front of the laptop.
The lawsuit claims that this is a violation of the Electronic Communications Privacy Act, the Computer Fraud Abuse Act, the Civil Rights Act, the Pennsylvania Wiretapping and Electronic Surveillance Act and the Fourth Amendment. Given that the laptops were routinely used at home, the plaintiffs assume that minors, parents and friends must've been caught dressing and undressing, or in other embarrassing positions. It's not specified what Robbins was caught doing on camera.
I can't imagine this case will travel very far in court without a handsome settlement, but it's shocking news nonetheless. It's so much more serious an invasion of privacy than, say, the recent suspension of a high school student for airing grievances over Facebook, which itself is somewhat appalling. Even if just one assistant principal was overstepping her bounds, these laptops never should've had the ability to remotely spy on students. Hopefully, some people get fired, a massive settlement check is written and other school districts around the country learn not to be so stupid.
