Prosecute any and all district employees remotely involved with this for trafficking in child porn, if indeed, the allegation is true. This is outrageous.
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.
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.
@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.
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.
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."
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.
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.
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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.