School allegedly uses students' laptop webcams for espionage, lawsuit ensues
By Ross Miller 
posted February 18th 2010 5:49PM
posted February 18th 2010 5:49PM
The school district has yet to respond to the accusations, so at this point we've only got the plaintiff's side of the story -- for all we know this kid took a picture of himself and somehow accidentally uploaded it on the school network. Then again, some purported Lower Merion students just emailed Gizmodo and claimed that their MacBooks' green webcam lights went on at random times, but they were told by IT support that it was just a technical glitch. Holy alleged invasion of privacy, Batman, this could get mighty interesting. PDF of the complaint available below.
Update: The Lower Merion School District superintendent Christopher McGinley has issued an official response on its website, acknowledging "a security feature intended to track lost, stolen and missing laptops." Going further, he says the district " has not used the tracking feature or web cam for any other purpose or in any other manner whatsoever" but that the matter is "under review."
[Thanks, Yossi]
I always feel like somebody's watching me...
@yakapo Good things Macs have the green light to let you know when the cam is on
@yakapo
big brother is always watching...
@(Unverified) Well Mr. Big Brother Pennsylvania man... take my pound of flesh and sleep well.
@yakapo
"engaged in improper behavior in his home"
who the fck is this bitch to tell someone that they were behaving improperly in there own fcking home?
if a teacher told me that i think i would go into a rage, especially after finding out that i was being watched without my consent, fcking knock the bitch the fck out.
Sorry, i don't usually post like this, but this is serious, this isn't just a matter of money compensation, jail time should be served here.
@yakapo
what I meant was
♪ I always feel like, somebody's watching me... ♫
@Drago
not only Macs have lights to show when the webcam is on
@yakapo I would just cover the camera with something..... I don't use it a lot any ways... and if I did I would just remove the sticker..
@yakapo
and i have no privacy?
@acme64
u got it.
@Dking7 This is why I would only have a webcam with a flip down camera cover. I've seen Cisco VOIP/Teleconferencing ones that have them. Pretty well takes care of this issue. Remotely turn on the camera all you like and all you will see is nothing. Now the mic is a different story.
@KAL326 well, actually I would just disable it in device manager... and that is it... nothing hard..
@Drago dude... too soon.
@Drago I see what you did there. haha. The guy that flew his plane into the IRS building in Austin... am i right?
@BrianH
They need more than just jail time.
Need to put the teacher in the ring with the kids father so he can beat the **** out of the teacher for violating his child's privacy.
Could throw the mother in there too, 2 vs 1 special.
Could sell tickets to the event and give the money to the school.
@Drago - Too bad Mac really won't let you do anything about it if the green light goes on without you yourself activating the webcam. Glitch or remote control - no way of knowing or shutting it of.
@Drago
Lets hope that that's build into the webcam, so it's physically impossible to enable the sensor chip without lighting the LED. Otherwise someone might just be able to enable your webcam without lighting the LED...
Only for tracking your stolen equipment, ofcourse!
@yakapo
Here I was thinking people at my University with tape over their webcams were just paranoid.
@yakapo
No, that's just the money you could have saved by using Geico
@Drago
I think all laptops have the light feature, my dell has a bright blue one
@BillF
I agree. Although, let's put everyone who had their laptop webcam go on fight the the principal all at once! :)
@Dking7
If someone demoted onto your PC, they could just re-enable it.
@rudefj
If someone 'demoted' into my PC, I would be concerned.
This kind of crap is why I don't own a webcam. I don't want people to hack into it and see my fat ass walking around eating Cheetoz.
@Dking7 good thing, but the problem is why the school monitor the kids at home or somwhere else, they are not international terrorists. even if i cover my camera and i would know no one can see my office, i cant accept that someone hack into my computer like that... ohhh to try to locate stolen equipement oh yeah, with somekind of STAR TREK tech GPS integrated artificial inteligence webcam stuff (this camera dont exist yet, sorry).... thats the stupidest thing i read in a defence statement for a while...
@yakapo I don't think it would be considered child pornography unless the images were intentionally used for a sexual purpose; there is no indication, at least from here, that that was the case.
Also even Feds, got themselves on sticky situation about arresting teens due to pornography. Sample: http://bit.ly/download-porn-case-too-harsh
I think the school, is just trying to make an alibis for their 'secret-nook' that has finally been revealed now..
@Dking7 Except Macs *don't* run Windows...
@yakapo
I always angle to webcam away from me when not in use. I can't stand its tiny little red eye staring blankly at me all day, judging me.
Sometimes I would find myself trying to justify my actions to it, explaining that living creatures have certain instinctual desires, but it never showed even a flicker of understanding. It just stared at me with a look that said "god I wish I had eyelids". I turn its eye away from me now, for its sake rather than my own. I feel bad that it lost its optical virginity so young.
@warningabc
I think the more disturbing story here is that they decided to go with Macbooks for this laptop placement program. So much for budgets, huh?
@yakapo I wonder if the kid was watching porn and stimulating himself? Would be funny in the middle, the principal cuts into live chat and starts saying loudy 'does your mother know what you are doing!".
@thunderbollock
Nailed it!
@MrPacMan36 Wrong- most don't. Neither my Sager nor my Gsteway have the light for the camera. Nor does my mom's HP, or my girlfriend's Compaq.
@Dking7 & everyone
That might help with the visuals, but if they would activate the microphone ....
@taylorreeners important detail. it wasn't that it was porn. it was that it was UNDERAGE porn (ie child pornography). which is exactly the point. if this school is using a remote system to 'check in' and photograph the students and catches a girl or boy undressing then that's child porn and even if they delete it, evidence in a system backup etc could still be around and time for some fun with the Feds.
heck I hope some parent actually brings this up to the authorities. because checking that the kids aren't using the computers for limewire, torrents etc doesn't require turning on the camera
Well... This is clearly not okay. Who's bright idea was this?
@CorporalAris
Kindly refrain from masturbation while commenting. Regards, Engadget.
@TC LOL! specially since you are not getting paid lol... free show? NAHHHH
@CorporalAris
i dunno. i mean, how attractive is this boy? this thread is useless without pictures....
@CorporalAris They should arrest the superintendent for possession of child pornography, at least if that's what they mean by "indecent."
I am possibly the most confused by these reply's as I have ever been.
Prosecute any and all district employees remotely involved with this for trafficking in child porn, if indeed, the allegation is true. This is outrageous.
@Bosco
This in no way affects me, but i am honestly tense with anger at the though of being told what i can do in my own home, and being watched?
WOW
@Bosco
I honestly hope they fucking clean house on this one.
@BrianH
This is school property we're talking about here, and as such the users are subject to regular sweeps. While I don't agree with someone telling you what you can and can't do with your life, whatever it was that the student was doing had to have been done while using the school-owned laptop. If he was looking at porn or whatever, I can understand the action the school took completely. If he was smoking a cigarette (funny or otherwise) or whatever else that has nothing to do with the laptop, the school/administrators/district can all go sit on the largest phallus they can find and rotate.
It's the method I have the issue with; if they're going to go so far as to switch on the webcam, they could just as easily sniff internet traffic/search for possible malicious or illegal software on the hard drive/et cetera. The webcam, especially since it has a frigging light that turns on when the device is in use in this case, is a poor choice in snooping method.
@ytilanigiroon
No, im sorry, if the school has not told students that the computers are being monitored and that they can access the webcams remotely, then they have no fcking business doing it.
And if he was smoking? are you fcking kidding me? How can you even remotely support something like this.
The school district has no god damn business doing this and telling students what they can or cannot do at home.
Aside from the class action suit, i don't see how jail time cannot be served here.
@BrianH
ignore the smoking part, i read it wrongly in the rage of the moment.
@ytilanigiroon This should give every parent whose school offers one of these laptop programs some pause. If the school owns it, perhaps they will think they can spy on your kids, whether it be to check for unauthorized software, bootlegged music, or use the camera to catch them in uncompromising positions. This is really, really sick.
@Bosco
I'm with you all the way here, Bosco. Child porn charges all around. I'm actually really curious to know how this is going to shake out legally. The school is going to say "these are our computers, we can do what we want with them" and then some ACLU lawyers are going to [insert slang term for climax here] suing the everloving crap outta everyone and they'll have my moral support all the way.
@Old fogie late bloomer
Can you just imagine if it was a high school GIRL that had been spyed on? Especially by an opposite sex principle... he'd already be suspended. I smell some serious gender bias coming out during this "investigation."
@(Unverified)
I've got zero problem with them remotely checking out whats on the laptop's file system, monitoring web usage, etc since they own the laptop. But to use the webcam to look into the student's home is completely different. Spying on people and keeping track of you're own property are COMPLETELY different. You have no right to watch what I do in my home regardless.
@icase81
Which is, essentially, EXACTLY what I was saying. I'm a sysadmin/intranet application developer by trade, before I got to my current company they had been having trouble with people torrenting porn/software all the time on the computers. That changed pretty quick. Then they started trying to bring in personal laptops to download whatever on the DSL line we have, only to find that MAC filters had been assigned and vlans defined. If you ain't on the guest list you have workgroup connectivity, but no internet.
What it boils down to is liability for the entity that owns whatever it is that you're using. Last I read, you can get dinged roughly $2000 per song that has been illegally obtained on any given machine. If that's a company owned piece of hardware, guess who is held responsible. Sure, the user gets fired but even a 10 song album ends up a $20,000 fine for the company.
I never said that it was acceptable for the school to use the camera, especially if it's not explicitly mentioned in the terms of use. Even then, it's odd that it would be the preferred method of snooping. It doesn't even serve any purpose aside from voyeurism.
If it's not your personal property, you shouldn't use it like it is. But then again, common sense isn't a very well stocked commodity with people these days it would seem. Like a bunch of other posters have said, just cover the thing up with a sticky note or something.