Little Brother - School Authorities and Surveilance

Started by Malthus, February 18, 2010, 03:13:37 PM

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Malthus

Schools remotely turn on webcams on school-issued laptops, spy on students off school property - or so lawsuit alleges, after a kid gets busted for "inappropriate behaviour" seen through remote webcam. Whoever thought this was a good idea?  :lol:

http://www.boingboing.net/2010/02/17/school-used-student.html

I know exactly what a school would have seen if they spied on me like that when I was a teen - a whole lot of wanking.  ;)
The object of life is not to be on the side of the majority, but to escape finding oneself in the ranks of the insane—Marcus Aurelius

grumbler

Quote from: Malthus on February 18, 2010, 03:13:37 PM
Schools remotely turn on webcams on school-issued laptops, spy on students off school property - or so lawsuit alleges, after a kid gets busted for "inappropriate behaviour" seen through remote webcam. Whoever thought this was a good idea?  :lol:

http://www.boingboing.net/2010/02/17/school-used-student.html

I know exactly what a school would have seen if they spied on me like that when I was a teen - a whole lot of wanking.  ;)
I find this hard to believe.  Given that it is basically impossible for people to erase things from hard drives, and the slightest bit of "accidental" exposure to any of these students not fully clothed will be child pornography, how could these school officials have expected to stay out of prison (let alone continued an educational career after being registered as a sex offender)?

Somebody needs firing, stat, if this story is true.
The future is all around us, waiting, in moments of transition, to be born in moments of revelation. No one knows the shape of that future or where it will take us. We know only that it is always born in pain.   -G'Kar

Bayraktar!

Agelastus

Surely, given this is the USA, they would have consulted a lawyer before deciding they had the right to spy on their pupils outside of school? I can't believe a lawyer would have said this was a good idea.
"Come grow old with me
The Best is yet to be
The last of life for which the first was made."

Razgovory

Schools do lots of stupid things but this one is a bit hard to believe.  It's just to loopy.
I've given it serious thought. I must scorn the ways of my family, and seek a Japanese woman to yield me my progeny. He shall live in the lands of the east, and be well tutored in his sacred trust to weave the best traditions of Japan and the Sacred South together, until such time as he (or, indeed his house, which will periodically require infusion of both Southern and Japanese bloodlines of note) can deliver to the South it's independence, either in this world or in space.  -Lettow April of 2011

Raz is right. -MadImmortalMan March of 2017

ulmont

Quote from: Agelastus on February 18, 2010, 03:25:43 PM
Surely, given this is the USA, they would have consulted a lawyer before deciding they had the right to spy on their pupils outside of school? I can't believe a lawyer would have said this was a good idea.

You would be surprised on both counts.  Lot of people do things without consulting lawyers, and incompetent lawyers abound.

Malthus

Quote from: grumbler on February 18, 2010, 03:21:04 PM
Quote from: Malthus on February 18, 2010, 03:13:37 PM
Schools remotely turn on webcams on school-issued laptops, spy on students off school property - or so lawsuit alleges, after a kid gets busted for "inappropriate behaviour" seen through remote webcam. Whoever thought this was a good idea?  :lol:

http://www.boingboing.net/2010/02/17/school-used-student.html

I know exactly what a school would have seen if they spied on me like that when I was a teen - a whole lot of wanking.  ;)
I find this hard to believe.  Given that it is basically impossible for people to erase things from hard drives, and the slightest bit of "accidental" exposure to any of these students not fully clothed will be child pornography, how could these school officials have expected to stay out of prison (let alone continued an educational career after being registered as a sex offender)?

Somebody needs firing, stat, if this story is true.

So far, only allegations in a statement of claim.
The object of life is not to be on the side of the majority, but to escape finding oneself in the ranks of the insane—Marcus Aurelius

Caliga

0 Ed Anger Disapproval Points

garbon

Quote from: ulmont on February 18, 2010, 03:30:54 PM
Lot of people do things without consulting lawyers.

Just this morning I had a telephone conversation and took a shower without consulting a lawyer. :o
"I've never been quite sure what the point of a eunuch is, if truth be told. It seems to me they're only men with the useful bits cut off."
I drank because I wanted to drown my sorrows, but now the damned things have learned to swim.

ulmont

Quote from: garbon on February 18, 2010, 04:37:13 PM
Quote from: ulmont on February 18, 2010, 03:30:54 PM
Lot of people do things without consulting lawyers.

Just this morning I had a telephone conversation and took a shower without consulting a lawyer. :o

And someday, that will come back to haunt you.  :rolleyes:

Martinus

Quote from: grumbler on February 18, 2010, 03:21:04 PM
Quote from: Malthus on February 18, 2010, 03:13:37 PM
Schools remotely turn on webcams on school-issued laptops, spy on students off school property - or so lawsuit alleges, after a kid gets busted for "inappropriate behaviour" seen through remote webcam. Whoever thought this was a good idea?  :lol:

http://www.boingboing.net/2010/02/17/school-used-student.html

I know exactly what a school would have seen if they spied on me like that when I was a teen - a whole lot of wanking.  ;)
I find this hard to believe.  Given that it is basically impossible for people to erase things from hard drives, and the slightest bit of "accidental" exposure to any of these students not fully clothed will be child pornography, how could these school officials have expected to stay out of prison (let alone continued an educational career after being registered as a sex offender)?

Somebody needs firing, stat, if this story is true.

I find it funny how the increasingly restrictive draconian laws on sex offenses have created a perfect self-referential loop. Just get a hormone-ridden teen with a webcome, give him or her enough time, and you can arrest people by the droves (including the teen for "publishing child pornography").

There is something ironic about children of the sexual revolution putting their own children in jail for playing doctor with each other.  :lol:

garbon

Quote from: ulmont on February 18, 2010, 04:40:58 PM
And someday, that will come back to haunt you.  :rolleyes:

It is true, my mother will likely sue me soon. :(
"I've never been quite sure what the point of a eunuch is, if truth be told. It seems to me they're only men with the useful bits cut off."
I drank because I wanted to drown my sorrows, but now the damned things have learned to swim.

dps

Quote from: Martinus on February 18, 2010, 04:43:57 PM
Quote from: grumbler on February 18, 2010, 03:21:04 PM
Quote from: Malthus on February 18, 2010, 03:13:37 PM
Schools remotely turn on webcams on school-issued laptops, spy on students off school property - or so lawsuit alleges, after a kid gets busted for "inappropriate behaviour" seen through remote webcam. Whoever thought this was a good idea?  :lol:

http://www.boingboing.net/2010/02/17/school-used-student.html

I know exactly what a school would have seen if they spied on me like that when I was a teen - a whole lot of wanking.  ;)
I find this hard to believe.  Given that it is basically impossible for people to erase things from hard drives, and the slightest bit of "accidental" exposure to any of these students not fully clothed will be child pornography, how could these school officials have expected to stay out of prison (let alone continued an educational career after being registered as a sex offender)?

Somebody needs firing, stat, if this story is true.

I find it funny how the increasingly restrictive draconian laws on sex offenses have created a perfect self-referential loop. Just get a hormone-ridden teen with a webcome, give him or her enough time, and you can arrest people by the droves (including the teen for "publishing child pornography").

Prosecuting a teenager for child pornagraphy for putting racy pictures of himself or herself on the net is stupid in the first place, but it's not going to happen here.  You can't successfully prosecute someone for something done without their knowledge or consent. 

That assumes that the family's claims are accurate.

Ed Anger

I wish Cory Doctrow at Boing Boing would fall into a ravine.
Stay Alive...Let the Man Drive

DontSayBanana

Possible?  Definitely; any integrated webcam can be remotely activated- that fact often leaves me scratching my head when people whine about laptops not having an integrated webcam.
Experience bij!

DisturbedPervert

I wouldn't buy a laptop that didn't have an integrated webcam.  For myself at least