School used laptop cams to spy on students
A US school has been accused of remotely activating webcams on students’ Macbook laptops to spy on them while they’re at home.
Michael and Holly Robbins of Penn Valley, Pennsylvania, made the discovery last November “after their son Blake was accused by a Harriton High School official of ‘improper behavior in his home and shown a photograph taken by his laptop”, says Computerworld.
They subsequently sued the Lower Merion School District of Ardmore, says the story, going on that some 1,800 students were given laptops as part of a state- and federally-funded “one-to-one” student-to-laptop project.
It adds:
“An assistant principal at Harriton later confirmed that the district could remotely activate the Webcam in students’ laptops.
” ‘Michael Robbins thereafter verified, through [Assistant Principal] Ms. Matsko, that the school district in fact has the ability to remotely activate the Webcam contained in a student’s personal laptop computer issued by the school district at any time it chose and to view and capture whatever images were in front of the Webcam, all without the knowledge, permission or authorization of any persons then and there using the laptop computer,’ the lawsuit stated.”
The UK government also operates a free laptops program.
But the agency in charge of school IT in Britain “has insisted there is no chance of the government’s free laptops program exposing the bedroom activities of British students”, says The Register.
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