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Pennsylvania spycam case heating up
A student who says he was spied on by school officials on his Mac laptop has filed new claims in the case. Harriton High School sophomore Blake Robbins claims pictures were taken of him while he was asleep and only partially dressed, and instant messages that he sent to friends were captured. The Lower Merion school district is now conceding that the effort it was making to keep track of school owned laptops was misguided, and today the district said it would release the results of its own internal investigation "good and bad." In a court filing, Robbins says the school captured more than 400 webcam images and screen shots using his computer. Robbins lawyer says that thousands of pictures were obtained from laptops issued to students by the school tech staff. Lawyers involved in the case met Friday for a status check and to discuss pending issues. According to an attorney for the Robbins family, school technology coordinator Carol Cafiero refused to answer questions during a recent deposition, citing her 5th Amendment rights against self-incrimination. The suburban Philadelphia school has issued Mac laptops to 2,300 students at two high schools. The FBI joined the case in February. [via the Philadelphia Inquirer]
Remote webcam activation now disabled in software that led to controversy at Pennsylvania school
The suburban Philadelphia school being investigated for spying on students using MacBook laptops will lose the ability to turn on the built-in cameras remotely when they update their security software. Absolute Software, new owners of the LANrev remote administration suite (formerly owned and developed by Pole Position GmbH), say they are going to remove the webcam remote activation feature from the software this week. In a note to customers today, the company said: "We know that webcam pictures are an ineffective tool in tracking down the location of a stolen computer. Taking pictures of lawful computer users without their permission, and without law enforcement involvement, is contrary to Absolute's policies and is inconsistent with our existing, more effective product offering." "Based on recent events, we have received many inquiries about TheftTrack from customers who are concerned and who want to ensure their organizations are not involved in a similar incident." As a result, the webcam feature is being removed in all updated versions of the software as of tomorrow. Current customers still have the feature, but they are being advised by the company to get the latest update. Meanwhile, the Philadelphia Inquirer is reporting that two I.T. employees of the Lower Merion School District have been placed on leave while an investigation continues. The incident received national attention when the parents of a Harriton High School sophomore filed a federal lawsuit on February 16, alleging that school officials were activating the iSight cameras built into MacBook computers while students were using the computers at home. The school has said the cameras were only turned on to locate stolen laptops, but several students said they saw the green camera light come on several times on computers that had not been reported stolen. Federal Agents are also investigating, and have asked the school for all records relating to the incident. The school says it has stopped using the software for accessing the webcams remotely. Over the last two years, the district has provided MacBooks to all 2,300 high school students.
PA school district issued order to refrain from webcam spying (video)
Why a school district would ever think it was acceptable to secretly snap pictures of its students -- in their own homes, no less -- is totally beyond us, but with any luck the Lower Merion School District webcam caper will soon have its day court. Yesterday, an attorney for plaintiff Blake Robbins' confirmed that an agreement was reportedly finalized to stop the school from spying on its students while preserving evidence for the lawsuit. "What gets me in this situation is that I can't imagine there's a parent anywhere who would support the school district's actions here," said ACLU of Pennsylvania Legal Director (and all around good guy) Vic Walczak. "[W]hat the school allegedly has done here is the equivalent of the principal breaking into the house, hiding in the child's closet, and then watching him or her from there." Yuck! For more info on the technical aspects of this case, peep the video after the break. Update: Seems that someone dug up some of the school's policies surrounding the webcam surveillance, and suffice it to say, the bullet points listed here are downright crazy. How crazy? How's about "possession of a monitored MacBook was required for classes, and possession of an unmonitored personal computer was forbidden and would be confiscated." Oh, and "disabling the camera was impossible."
School allegedly uses students' laptop webcams for espionage, lawsuit ensues
Hold onto your butts, kids, we've got a doozy of a story. Let's take this one slow: a class-action lawsuit has been filed in Pennsylvania accusing the Lower Merion school district of "unauthorized, inappropriate and indiscriminate remote activation" of webcams in laptops issued to students, without prior knowledge or consent. The tale begins when Assistant Principal Lindy Mastko of Harriton High School informed a student that he was "engaged in improper behavior in his home"; the suit alleges that when pressed for details, Mastko told both the boy and his father that the school district could remotely activate the webcam -- a capability that is apparently being used. 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]
