As said on first blush, this had nothing to do with security or getting a laptop back and more about control and voyeurism.
On Mon, May 3, 2010 at 7:43 PM, phartz...@gmail.com <phartz...@gmail.com>wrote: > A just-released report into the "Webcamgate" scandal has found that > Lower Merion School District officials knew that Harriton High School > sophomore Blake Robbins had taken his school-issued laptop home. > > Yet, they decided in October 2009 to activate a controversial program > that secretly captured hundreds of webcam photos and screenshots – > included pictures of Robbins sleeping and partially undressed, a photo > of his father, and images of instant messages and photos of friends > with whom Robbins was video-chatting. > > The TheftTrack feature was supposed to have been used only when a > student's school-issued Apple MacBook was reported lost or stolen. > > "Now currently online at home," one school-district technician > e-mailed another after the program was activated on Robbins' computer. > > The report, released tonight, was compiled by the Ballard Spahr law > firm and a computer-forensics firm at the request of the school > district. Investigators recovered 57,992 webcam images and screenshots > – many of them captured by students' laptops even after they had been > found. > > The district discontinued the controversial practice after Robbins and > his family filed an invasion-of-privacy lawsuit in February, claiming > that officials used the "Peeping Tom" technology to spy on students > inside their homes. > > The report found no evidence that officials used the feature to > intentionally "spy" on students, but said the district's "overzealous" > information-systems staff repeatedly activated the program "without > any apparent regard for privacy considerations or sufficient > consultation with administrators." > +++ > > The above is from Philly.com news. That last paragraph seems to me > to represent a distinction without a difference. If this does not get > anyone upset about abuse of power and authority by way of computer, > then I would have to suppose that not much else will. > > Steve > > > ************************************************************************* > ** List info, subscription management, list rules, archives, privacy ** > ** policy, calmness, a member map, and more at http://www.cguys.org/ ** > ************************************************************************* > ************************************************************************* ** List info, subscription management, list rules, archives, privacy ** ** policy, calmness, a member map, and more at http://www.cguys.org/ ** *************************************************************************
