back to article School secretly snapped 1000s of students at home

A suburban Philadelphia school district secretly captured thousands of images of students in their homes, sometimes as they slept or were partially undressed, according to documents filed in federal court. Using a system to track lost or stolen laptops, officials from the Lower Merion School District also covertly surveilled …

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  1. Anonymous Coward
    Thumb Down

    picture taken while they were asleep?

    don't these idiots ever turn their computers off? that'll teach them to burn the leccy

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Grenade

      or even

      close the lid?

      1. jake Silver badge

        If you close the lid

        Or otherwise buck authority, your post will be deleted by a moderator.

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Joke

      re: picture taken while they were asleep?

      If their teachers were like some of mine - that was probably just in classes

    3. Anonymous Coward
      Joke

      RE: picture taken while they were asleep?

      As the fanboys will have us believe you never have to reboot a Mac I can only assume he was taking them at their word, sleep tight :)

      Clam

    4. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      re: don't these idiots ever turn their computers off?

      You're not familiar with BitTorrent then? :-)

    5. Havin_it
      Stop

      Not necessarily!

      Haven't you ever faceplanted your keyboard during a long and late assignment as a result of failing to keep the caffeine levels up?

      The keylogger data would've been intriguing:

      Admin: "He keeps going on about this 'dsgfsjkhhhhkjweeeeeeeeellaanasanswrrrrrr'. D'you think it's a new drug?"

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Er....

        No...

      2. GilbertFilbert

        Re: havin_it 17:15

        "He keeps going on about this 'dsgfsjkhhhhkjweeeeeeeeellaanasanswrrrrrr'.

        Oh no, another Icelandic volcano. We're all doomed.

  2. DavCrav
    WTF?

    Paedophiles?

    Quote from article:

    "Viewing the images was like watching "a little LMSD soap opera," one of them said, referring to the initials of the school district.

    "I know, I love it!" technology coordinator Carol Cafiero replied."

    I know we shouldn't get all frothy at the mouth over paedophile danger, but when we actually find one, we chop off their private bits, right? Even if it's a woman? Where are the pitchforks?

  3. Yet Another Anonymous coward Silver badge

    @picture taken while they were asleep?

    Prove your laptop is off, assuming you didn't install it and don't have admin rights.

    Do you take the battery out everynight, put it in a lead-lined box?

    I used to work in an environment where, for security, you were allowed nothing electronic - even car alarm fobs were suspect.

    But this was for a lab where "prompt criticality" wasn't a management buzzword - I wouldn't expect the same thing to apply to my kid's bedroom.

    1. No. Really!?

      They're MacBooks...

      The batteries are not removable.

  4. ratfox
    FAIL

    Heads are gonna roll...

    Hard to believe they thought they could do this

  5. nelmar
    Happy

    blu-tac is your friend

    that is all

  6. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Paedophile's Paradise

    The subject says it all, well pedophile if your american, what ever happened to asking the lad where the laptop was?

    I wonder how many people over here will be as keen to accept government issued laptops for kids of familes on low incomes.

    1. Ned Leprosy Silver badge

      More a case of privacy intrusion

      I think I've become deaf to the concern about paedophiles supposedly on every street corner thanks to the tabloids' unhealthy obsession with the subject, but for the sheer scale of the disregard for other people's privacy, I hope they throw the book at the scrotes responsible.

  7. kain preacher

    Um

    Ever hear of wake on lan ?

  8. Anonymous Coward
    WTF?

    gobsmacked !

    ...and they acted on the basis of pictures they captured..? They're toast - or they would be over here or in Oz...

  9. Kit-Fox
    Black Helicopters

    Basic Procedure?

    What happened to like reformatting and installing a different OS?

    Or assuming that would have caused problems how about a bit of blacktape over the webcam & mic when your not actively using it? I mean its not like its rocket science & provides you with reasonable security against a remotely activated camera/mic.

    Daft kids & insanely stupid school administrators, who deserve the book throwing at them over this. In any other setting the person activating the 'security' software would be labelled a right perv and the tabloids would have a field day with them.

  10. James Woods

    Hello Mr Orwell

    The state of Pennsylvania has a number of good ideas. Since budgets don't matter until election time the states' larger citys are putting up cameras so we can be more like Europe watching people get raped, mugged, and killed on the streets rather then simply having the proper police force to deal with the problems.

    We have GPS on most of state police trooper cars (unsure of the unmarked ones) which can be beneficial to cops during a trial. However this technology has also been shown to be a fork in road as well since as we all already know cops are allowed to lie to get you to say something however when you lie you lose your credibility. Hard to lie about where you were at when the GPS says hey your right there!

    They tinkered with the notion of having GPS in the cars of our great honest politicans here drive but it was said to be a security concern. Yeah it's a security concern that they get caught in their taxpayer supplied escalades out at the truck stop picking up suitcases from lobbying firms.

    These kids that had this happen to them deserve whatever they can get from this school district and also the department of education for allowing it to happen.

    We know a pedophile is currently running the doe, god knows what he's doing with these pictures.

  11. NovaStar
    WTF?

    WTH?

    If they snapped images of students who were "in various states of undress", they should be charged with production, (and maybe distribution) of child pornography.

    Yeah, I know intent has a lot to do with it, but I've seen people in the US convicted on nothing more than cached thumbnails that may have been of someone under 18.

  12. jake Silver badge

    Fourth Amendment + Fourteenth ...

    Do they no longer teach what "unreasonable searches and seizure" and "due process" mean at the highschool level? I guess that's fairly rhetorical ... One of the problems[1] of reducing school budgets is that the kids don't learn little details like this.

    The idiots who signed off on this need to do jail time.

    [1] I know, to the politicians it's a feature, not a bug.

    1. Rattus Rattus
      FAIL

      After eight years

      of a lying scumbag as president, who thinks of the Constitution as "just a piece of paper," ideas like unreasonable search and seizure are probably out of fashion now.

      When your goverment can listen in on the whole country's phone conversations and never have to show due cause, when anything goes in the name of catching "turrrists," when the One Commandment is "Thou Shalt Not Get Caught," it probably gets a little murky sorting out right from wrong.

  13. Anonymous Coward
    Grenade

    creepy

    this is why there is tape over the webcam on my laptop.

    also if you're dumb enough to trust a school supplied laptop you get what you deserve, without a doubt i'd be booting it off some sort of live disc or better yet sticking an extra partition on there.

    also anon coward, never left bittorrent running over night?

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      ...and why mine has no webcam at all...

      Apart from security, I find built-in webcams to be a PIA - much rather plug one in as I need it, and be able to place and adjust it as I please. They're becoming fairly ubiquitous, so I may not have a choice in future - but I wouldn't touch a machine without a hard-switch control for the cam.

      Also .... quite an amazing number of people do not use their computers for BitTorrent and the like, and actually switch them off occasionally. Strange but true.

  14. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Stasi-Style crap

    Turn the Computer OFF?!

    Seriously, I don't think you get the point.

    But Karl explains it quite well and to the point.

    http://market-ticker.denninger.net/archives/1986-My-God,-I-Saw-A-Cop!-FBI-And-PA-Schools.html

    http://market-ticker.denninger.net/archives/1987-Stasi-Style-Crap-Continues-Lower-Merion-Schools.html

  15. skeptical i

    At $1000 a pop, it might be cheaper to give the laptops away than settle out of court.

    If the school district is really REALLY concerned about the laptops going AWOL, can't they install some kind of "black box" transmitter thingie? I am gobsmacked that somewhere in the bowels of the school bureaucracy, someone said "Well, we can have the laptops take pictures at various intervals" without being gangstomped by the district's lawyers. Pass the popcorn, this oughta be a good one.

  16. Anonymous Coward
    Thumb Down

    "a little LMSD soap opera,"

    What's LMSD then? The only thing Google's 'define:' gives is Lower Middle School District.

    @ first OP: presumably, since the software was for tracking stolen laptops, it has a "remote-on" function because you can't track something that is off. If it's in suspend mode, then it's probably easy to have the network port stay open and send some sort of WOL type thing. Then again, harder to do with wireless...

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Paris Hilton

      The very next line

      "referring to the initials of the school district."

    2. James Henstridge

      Re: LMSD

      From the article, it would appear to be Lower Merion School District.

    3. Peter Gathercole Silver badge
      Boffin

      WOL...

      ...cannot be used for this type of wake-up remotely, unless the system generating the WOL packet is either on the same physical (wired) network, or there is some form of MAC level routing set up.

      By definition, WOL packets have to be at the MAC level (if the laptop is off, DHCP cannot allocate IP addresses), and these do not route through standard IP routers.

      And this also means that the laptop cannot be on a wireless network, as WOL does not work over an 802.11abgn network.

      My suspicion is that when the laptop in on, there is a VPN set up to allow the laptop to access and be accessed by the school systems, regardless of the network, routers and firewalls between the school and the laptop. This will be a software VPN, which relies on the OS, which means that the system has to be on.

      Unless someone has produced a LAN card that is integrated in these laptops that does IP and VPN actually in the NIC when in standby mode. If they have, I suggest that these would be laptops to avoid, as who knows who would be able to snoop.

    4. Paul C. Hartley
      Black Helicopters

      In his web seminar...

      In his web seminar the Tech admin at the centre of this mess, Mike Perbix, explains in great detail exactly how it works.

      I dont remember all the exact details but in essence when the laptop is turned on and once it establishes a connection to the internet it will connect to the LANrev server back at the school on a port published on the school's firewall. The LANrev software is running at all times on the laptop and can not be switched off and doing so is an excludable offence under the school rules.

      The LANrev software by default sits in remote admin mode so that the school IT admin team can remotely manage the machine. If the laptop has been flagged as stolen then once it has established its connection to the LANrev server the LANrev software on the laptop will kick into remote observation mode and start taking screenshots and photos every 15 minutes and dispatching them to the school LANrev server.

      I am pretty sure this system only works when the machine is turned on however I am not sure if it keeps taking snapshots and photos once it has been triggered even when it is not on the net until it is told not to do so when it connects back up with the LANrev server in the school.

      I think he mentioned that he could activate the camera at any time on any connected laptop and take snapshots. I think I remember that he was boasting that the camera could be set to take pictures every 15 minutes when not connected to the home network. You and I would presume that the home network was the one at the students home but I suspect that he could have meant the "home" network in the school that the LANrev server was situated on.

      It is a while since I last saw the web seminar that he did so I may have some of the details wrong. I last saw it when the scandal broke. The full seminar can be found in 6 parts on youtube by searching youtube for "Mike Perbix LANrev" and you used to (and probably still can although I havent tried) be able to access the seminar through links in the Blog page linked to at the bottom of the article that we are comenting on.

      Mike Perbix's web seminar video was at one time part of the promotional material for LANrev however LANrev have now disavowed him and removed the webcam functionality from their product by all accounts

  17. frank ly
    Coat

    Pictures, or it didn't happen

    ok, ok, I'm leaving.

  18. tkioz
    WTF?

    Creeeeeeepy

    Talk about creepy.

  19. LaeMing
    Black Helicopters

    Several months back...

    ...my university IT department switched our standard office monitor to one with an inbuilt webcam. Mainly because of the new videoconferencing kit we just installed. But a lot of postgrads were getting paranoid about being spied on.

    Not sure why anyone would actually want to watch postgrads sitting in their grotty food-packet-filled offices, but I am sure this incident will result in the first aid cabinets needing another top-up of bandaids (used to cover the webcam lenses).

    I was lucky enough to get a new monitor before the webcam ones. I prefer a seperate webcam. I can turn it upside down for internal video calls. And it is easier to move to where I can use my hand, made up with whiteboard marker lips and eyes, as my puppet (my motto is currently "talk to the hand"). I am planning to get hold of a fake eyeball from the science centre gift shop some time and do Vindaoonian impersonations too. Luckily my boss has a good sense of humour. :-D

  20. Al fazed
    Unhappy

    Name change

    Maybe Philadelphia should change the name of their town to Paedophilia ?

    ALF

  21. Glen Turner 666
    Grenade

    Why do school sysadmins have access to student computers anyway?

    It is well time that school system administrators were told in no uncertain term by parents that the computers they have bought for their children belong to them, not to the school.

    1. max allan

      I didn't think the parents had bought them?

      It says "school issued Macs" in the article. Which suggests they were school property. So the sysadmins should have every right to do what the school tells them to rather than what some kid wants.

      Also, presumably there were some T&C's included with the purchase of the $55 insurance surveillance pack that they bought.

      Caveat Emptor!

  22. Winkypop Silver badge
    Joke

    Think of it as...

    ...a modern-day guardian angel.

    No?

  23. irish donkey
    WTF?

    Pedo's queueing up outside schools

    With their Trojan Horse's

    Hey kid wanna free laptop!

  24. John Dougald McCallum
    FAIL

    OR>>>>

    >>>>shut the lid as I belive that puts it in hibernate mode or some such

  25. Uncle Slacky Silver badge
    Big Brother

    Brown stuff...

    ...meet spinny thing. This is going to run and run. I'll get the popcorn.

  26. ShadowedOne
    WTF?

    To title or not to title, that is the question..

    I suggest that everyone read the AP story which mentions something that I find rather shocking. Apparently hundreds of parents/families are opposing the Robbins' suit against the school. I'm caught between wondering why, and worrying that the answer to my question might be even worse.

    1. Pablo
      Unhappy

      "financial and other reasons"

      That's what it says. I don't know what "other reasons" there were, but apparently the primary reason was financial. Presumably meaning they are afraid (perhaps rightly) that the settlement from such a lawsuit could bankrupt the school.

      While I can see where they're coming from, I don't much like that line of reasoning. It reminds me of the "too big to fail" justification for the bank bailouts. People in positions of power have to be held accountable somehow. I would rather put up with a little temporary disruption than let them hide behind that excuse indefinitely.

    2. Marcus Aurelius
      Big Brother

      Parents opposing

      Parents and families are opposing the Robbins' suit against the school....

      The simple answer is that igf the court awards Robbins several million bucks, guess which childrens education budget will be several million bucks short in the ensuing years,

    3. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      re: wondering why

      Probably because it's the School Board that will be fined - that will result in less funding for education, or higher local taxation.

  27. Eddy Ito

    Fecal matter impacts rotary turbine!

    They shouldn't stop at the school, they should also go after the individuals who I'm sure will claim they were "just doing their jobs".

    The district is going to be in a world of hurt when some student takes a 'sexting' pic and it winds up on the net with a ready excuse that it was taken remotely. Oh yes, the poor fan will seize with the amount of shit that's going to be on it.

  28. Anonymous Coward
    Black Helicopters

    oh my...

    *sticks a piece of tinfoil tape over his laptop webcam.

    Sidenote: filming partially naked kids without consent?... never mind the black helicopter, where's the partyvan?

  29. Anonymous Coward
    Paris Hilton

    Evidence, please

    How can we judge how serious a case this is without seeing the images alleged to have been captured?

    At least if the school sets up a ppv website, it might cover some of the legal fees...

    Paris; an expert witness on embarrassing digital disclosures

  30. Thomas 18
    Big Brother

    fire everyone involved

    Nobody at the school who knew about this should ever work in education again.

  31. Anonymous Coward
    Thumb Down

    Hmm, smells fishy

    Im guessing but in the T&C of the laptops given away probably had something in it, and how exactly does a laptop know when its stolen?

    Or does it wait until a signal has been sent to it, if so then that laptop must transmit a signal via the net letting servers know where they are, anyone else see the failed logic in this?

  32. Blubster
    Coat

    By Christ!

    I can just hear Peter `call me Mandy` Mandelson shouting "Why didn't I think of that! With a free laptop in every home I can keep tabs on everyone"

  33. Anonymous Coward
    Flame

    Erm

    The paedofinder general should be burning them in a wicker man by now... Pictures of partially dressed kids like a soap opera, more akin to Skins or some seedy Channel 5/Canal Sat show.

    Down with this sort of thing, won't someone please think of the children, etc. Just think mind, not too much, and no peeking at them while they sleep!

    @AC 23:22 They're Americans, electricity comes from other planets dontcha know ;)

    One wonders if there are laws against capturing images of scantily clad minors in the US of A, or does Britain pwn the yanks on this legal (a)front?

    Flame to purify their unclean minds. Requesting a Peadofinder General icon please Moderatrix ^^

  34. Pascal Monett Silver badge

    Let me see if I get this straight

    In order to protect our precious children from paedos in the streets, we'll give pic-snapping capability to so-called safety products so that we can have our kids oogled at by IT workers in our schools - positions now undoubtedly extremely sought after by . . . paedos.

    So all is well now, right ?

  35. Curtis

    sooo....

    We now have it going from "only used when the laptop is reported stolen" to "he never paid the insurance, so that gave us the right to turn it on". IHMO (IANAL)- This is nothing less than state supported voyerism, thought policing, and most likely child pornography (although I will bet there are no safeguards in place to make sure that there was a record of imaged "deleted" by people viewing them and, statistically speaking, there will be one of those pictures somewhere). If I were this kid's attorney, I'd be all over the "Safeguards" in place for the data.

  36. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    police states r fun

    welcome to school, walk through the metal detector please.

    welcome to class, thumb scan to register please.

    welcome to the toilet, smile for the camera please.

    take this laptop, you can check out any time you like, but you can never leave.

  37. Paul RND*1000
    FAIL

    Icon fail

    The proper icon to attach to your post is the 8th one along on the second row.

    Unless of course you're serious, in which case, may I refer you to the icon attached to this post.

    Everyone who thought this was a great idea, all the way up to the highest level of administration which gave the OK for it, should be made an example of.

  38. Anonymous Coward
    Paris Hilton

    Lost for words ...

    misanthropy?

    sociopathic tendencies?

    paedophilia?

    The thing is that while the above might be repressed in general all it requires is some suitable form of justification perhaps something along lines of:

    thought the machine had been stolen

    thought the machine was being used improperly

    thought that the machine might have been accessing inappropriate websites

    it is an expensive machine and we needed to see what it was doing as it was switched on we decided to use some of its features to take images, videos or track emails to be sure that our investment was being used as it should

    The defining line can be rather neat.

    For example between a good GP and (in UK) a Dr Harold Shipman type GP (yes, he too was able to justify what had happened beyond scrutiny and accountability)

  39. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Required Title

    And then there's the reports that at least one of the (alleged) perps involved is pleading the fifth, that is the amendment ment to protect citizens from government over-reach. And schools are of course in no way or form part of the government.

  40. Dave Bell

    Bizarre Details

    The claim about the insurance is a trifle odd. If you can't take the laptop home, what's the point?

    Even if that provides an excuse for using the software, we're talking potential child porn images. Semi-clad young men? Whay shouldn't they be as well-protected by the law as semi-clad young women?

  41. This post has been deleted by its author

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Coat

      Shame on you.

      You should always be wearing a smart three piece suit and tie during the day, and a dinner jacket and bow tie in the evening, while using the laptop- especially while viewing bbc.co.uk/homeservice.

  42. Anonymous Coward
    Unhappy

    Soap opera my arse

    The victims are real people who did nothing wrong. The school district administrators responsible should be locked up somewhere where cameras are watching *them* 24 hours a day.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Big Brother

      re: Soap opera my arse

      Somewhere where cameras are watching *them* 24 hours a day.

      What, you mean Britain? Surely even they don't deserve THAT!

  43. mrweekender
    Grenade

    Yep...

    ...they (the school) are f*cked, in a sane society that is. Anonymous Coward you are a first class prick whom I hope is badly burned in a road accident! If someone took pictures of my daughter in a state of undress there wouldn't be a court case, instead I'd send 'the boys' round to break some limbs - it's the only language these tw*ts understand.

  44. Bruce Ordway

    Carol Cafiero

    I've had the bad luck of being told to record and report on the PC activities of employees.

    Some under scrutiny were people I liked, others not so much.

    In either case, it felt like a creepy thing to have to do, even if necessary.

    My co-worker at the time also had to surveil.

    He enjoyed it and and advocated more usage.

    Carol Cafiero sounds like him from this article.

    Anyway,

    My co-worker ended up getting laid off, I'm still employed.

    A person who is a snoop tends to have a lot of other baggage.

    Who would want them around?

    P.S.

    >don't these idiots ever turn their computers off? that'll teach them to burn the leccy

    I leave mine on all the time. No cameras though.

  45. Alan B
    FAIL

    @ Glen Turner 666

    *Why do school sysadmins have access to student computers anyway?*

    Did you actually read the article? The laptops belong to the school, not the students - "...covertly surveilled students as they used their **SCHOOL-ISSUED** Macs..."

  46. Anonymous Coward
    WTF?

    IANAL, but

    Just out of curiosity, if a laptop was stolen and the thief later identified by by surveillance through the web cam, wouldn't that too go counter to several laws in the US? If so the thin justification for snooping goes up in smoke.

  47. Adam Johnston

    @ Glen Turner 666

    Not only were the laptops supplied by the school, but private (i.e unmonitored laptops) were banned and would be confiscated.

    1. fred #257
      FAIL

      Whoops

      Well that leaves the school wide open, doesn't it? NO WAY can they argue that use of the laptops was voluntary and implied acceptance of the terms and conditions.

      If the parents' laywer is any damn good, that school board should be so toasted you could use them for charcoal.

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Jobs Horns

      Yeah serious?

      When I went to school - I had my OWN laptop, connected to my OWN wireless network....

      I figured that I paid them to educate me, not spy on me.

      And that my business is MY business.

      And that is just how it's going to be.

  48. Yet Another Anonymous coward Silver badge
    Grenade

    @Trust

    >also if you're dumb enough to trust a school supplied laptop you get what you deserve.

    If you are at the stage where you have to assume that something your school issues to your kid is dangerous then this is the least of your problems!

    What's next ? My kid brought home a note form school but I had the bomb squad destroy it unopened - after all you can't be too careful with school stuff!

  49. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Re: 'just cover the lens'

    What reason would the kids have to suspect that the school is spying on them at home?

    Even if you had told them to cover the lens, they'd have asked you where your tin foil hat is. Hell some of them are so thick now you could show them this article and they still wouldn't believe it. They get to worship the flag every morning and pay lip service to freedom and that's proof enough to them that they live in a free country. The only real choice many of them will ever have, in the immortal words of George Carlin (RIP), is "paper or plastic?" oops, these days you can't even have plastic. Nevermind then.

    It's not okay for schools to spy on kids at home just because kids can cover the camera. What if the school started excluding people for doing that? "damaging school property" they'd call it. Yeah it'd be trumped-up bullshit but that's never stopped them before and they'll be damned if they're going to let honesty and integrity get in their way now.

  50. Matthew 4
    WTF?

    wtf?

    How can they possibly be trying to justify that what they did was ok?

    and the LAME excuse about the insurance not paid? why couldn't they just as him when he got to school the next day? It is just a blatent invasion of privacy.

    and FYI A/C you are not meant to close your laptop lid while it is running as the keyboard is where much of the heat is dispersed.

  51. Dennis 3
    Stop

    let's have some honesty here

    Hopefully, all the hot air that has been blown in the above comments made everyone feel better, or at least let them brag about their IT security prowess sufficiently.

    Otherwise, does anybody really believe this will go further than deals being cut, a couple of scapegoats/yes-men getting in trouble, and the real source(s) of these policies skulking in the shadows, untouched (or quietly let go to come back as highly paid consultants/advisers)?

  52. Fred Flintstone Gold badge
    Stop

    Simple solution

    I'd have them straight for child pornography. If the government insists on passing idiotic laws you might as well make good use of it and get those %&ç£$ idiots into a world of trouble. If I would have discovered this going on with my kid that suspicion would have been with the plods in the next 30 seconds (plus the 10 minutes it takes them to pick up the call, of course).

    Naturally, as a concerned parent I could only highlight my suspicion, but the law of probability makes it likely they will have some images that will fit the bill, and it would take ages before they'd dug themselves out of that hole.

    Morons.

  53. This post has been deleted by its author

  54. Maty

    What did they sign?

    Surely the school board made these kids - or their parents - sign something before handing over the comp. Even if just a receipt.

    So did the Terms of Service say something like 'In signing this I acknowledge that authorized officials may, at their discretion, activate features or intercept communications on this device.'

    If so it may go a long way towards getting the school off the hook. Not that this would make its actions any less contemptible or inexcusable.

  55. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Usually I am not for throwing the book at folks

    Usually I am not for throwing the book at folks, we have too many public urinators, harmless flashers, and teenage-to slightly out of tennager indicretionaries on the sexual predator databases already, having such folks on these is like crying wolf as we get worn down to not being concerned about the truly dangerous individual's, the out and out raw sexual predators.

    That being said; every last one of these so-called "public servants" involved in this whole blatant 4th amendment violation/mess ought to be on the sex predator role-call for quite a long time; it should be a convenient way to segue them into some other career field away from interacting with minors. Kinda reminds me of the Catholic Church and how its ranks harbored pedophile wanabe's for decades, time for the purge to begin....

  56. liquidphantom

    Strangers

    "Never take candy offered by a stranger"?.... wait no thats not it.. "Never take a lappy offered by the school"

  57. Fred Flintstone Gold badge
    Coat

    They missed a trick..

    All that's missing is that their administrator is a Catholic priest..

    Yup, that's mine. The pitchfork, too, thanks.

  58. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    There might have been one defense

    If he was not allowed to take it home then he must have been instructed to dropped it off somewhere specific in the school. If the school finds it is not where it should be at the end of the day then I could reason that turning it on would be fine... for ONE DAY. They are obviously doing this for entertainment rather than security and as such I hope they get their asses handed to them.

    The only person you want to watch you is the one who does not want to.

  59. Throatwobbler Mangrove

    as a guess

    " Apparently hundreds of parents/families are opposing the Robbins' suit against the school. I'm caught between wondering why, "

    As a guess, I'd say it was something to do with the way schools are funded in the US: by a tax on local property. Presumably the opposing parents are also local taxpayers and if Robbins wins ten billion dollars </dr evil>, then they know next year their property taxes will go up to pay for damages/legal costs/higher insurance/whatever.

  60. Goodwrench
    WTF?

    Don't blame the victims

    Despite being stupid enough to leave the computer on with the lid open, the CHILDREN in this case are the victims, not the perpetrators. The pervs in this episode deserve our full disdain, not the kids who just didn't conceive of the skulduggery.

  61. Anonymous Coward
    Paris Hilton

    Going a little bit further

    There seems to be an interesting human behavioural issue on the go here (and I'd guess at quite a few yet undisclosed places).

    Example:

    A decent hardworking village/town butcher serving the needs of residents turning to commit most horrible crime upon request that people of different ethnic values end up in a mass grave with the butcher doing the dispatching.

    How does such a large change come about?

    Reasonable shop owner to war criminal in very easy steps?

    Maybe there is also a voyeuristic aspect happening with belief that they are above reproach (just doing what I was told to do perhaps?)

  62. David Gillies
    FAIL

    Paranoia is the answer

    I taped a little square of cardboard cut from a cereal box over the the lens of the camera on my MacBook. If the combined legions of Bill Jobs and the surveillance state can defeat that to see me surfing with no pants on, then good luck to 'em.

    1. Alice Andretti
      Jobs Horns

      Apple patent DEFEATS tape/cardboard

      "I taped a little square of cardboard cut from a cereal box over the the lens of the camera on my MacBook. If the combined legions of Bill Jobs and the surveillance state can defeat that to see me surfing with no pants on, then good luck to 'em."

      Apple is a step ahead of you, with "a flat-panel display that doubles as a camera". Reg article "Apple patents all-seeing display" here:

      <http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/05/19/integrated_sensing_display/>

      Snippet from the above Reg link: "Essentially, the patent describes a flat panel in which each display element (pixel) is accompanied by an imaging element (sensor) with either a fixed-focus or zoomable lens. The display can thus act as a traditional display while simultaneously imaging an object - such as your face - in front of it."

      The U.S. Patent website (linked to in above Reg article) says that "the integrated sensing device can not only output images (e.g., as a display) but also input images (e.g., as a camera)."

      Good luck turning *that* kind of camera off - anytime you can see the screen, it can see (and record images of) you.

      I hope Apple never implements this creepy technology.

      But (hand me my tinfoil hat, please) what's to stop *other* companies from secretly implementing a similar technology and just not bothering to tell the customers? Seems like it could have potential for, oh I dunno, industrial espionage or something... or not...

  63. sideshow

    Surveillance of students in commonplace in the US.

    Check this video: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/digitalnation/learning/schools/how-google-saved-a-school.html?play

    Watch the creepy assistant principal (from 4:30-6:00 in the video) as he observes students remotely, and says with glee, "They don't even realise that we're watching. I always like to mess with them and take a picture."

    There'll be plenty more lawsuits.

  64. Anonymous Coward
    Black Helicopters

    I say we make the perps be the first people on Mars

    ...with a one-way ticket on Virgin Interplanetary 1. It would be a light one to pack for too - give 'em fliplops and bermuda shorts, all done.

    Anon because two inhumane actions don't make for a humane one.

  65. max allan
    Black Helicopters

    Blimey you lot are paranoid!!!!

    The number of people here who cover their camera is ridiculous.

    Do you really care if someone can see you?

    Even if you're naked, unless you're particularly good looking then you're probably only going to attract a minority audience. (or a kid attracting a paedo audience)

    If someone wants to look at you that badly, they are going to find other ways to do it. You only need to look at dealextreme to see some of the very cheap mini cameras you can buy that would easily be squeezed in all sorts of small places around your house. Long lenses, etc... are all probably easier and more reliable than trying to track down your IP address and remotely pwn your PC and enable your webacm and stream data back without you noticing.

    Or do you regularly do illegal stuff in front of your PC? (not on your PC like downloading, in front of it, like I can't imagine what, that isn't extremely depraved and unlikely)

    You're more likely to get a key logger than a remotely controlled webcam and you're not disconnecting your keyboard are you?

    1. Jimbo 6

      You, sir

      ...are an idiot. End of.

  66. Arclight
    FAIL

    Accessible from school?

    Two things spring to mind here. Even if this hadn't happened or come to light, these webcams can be acivated remotely with out the user knowing, and they can also be accessed from the schools computers.

    The above two are a hackers dream.

  67. Field Marshal Von Krakenfart
    WTF?

    WTF, FAIL and BB icons please

    FFS, there is so much wrong with this I don't know wher to begin!

    1. For the people who say lappy left on to run BitTorrent, cop on would you. If you were distributing lappys to school kids with secret spyware wouldn’t you lock then down so that can’t be fiddled with? I know I would. Downloading music on a school PC, the copyright mafiiaa would sue the school. Your job GONE!

    2. Who gave the teachers/admin paedo spy powers, not only would I sack the headmaster and the two admins, I’d sack the fuck-wits that gave them the authority in the first place. The only input the school should have in the stolen laptop process is that the school should report the laptop stolen to a central location who should be the only one able to switch the service on.

    3. Surprised nobody raised the “if you’re not doing anything wrong etc.” line of bullshit.

    4. Never mind the school, did you see the ads server up by the oompa-loompa news story? A trio of ads for blood suckers offering Injury Compensation, online claims and best of all Computer Forensics, eDiscovery and Litigation Consulting experts.

    5. Note to merkin parents who are opposed to the Robbins taking the case, here’s a little quote from one of the signatories of your constitution “They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety” - Benjamin Franklin.

    6. I really do hope the Robbins get millions, just to teach the fuck-wits a lesson. (Hi I’m an ex-headmaster of a Philadelphia school, and because I ignored a minor’s privacy and have no sense of what is morally correct I cost the state millions of dollars, would you like to employ me, No? Good!)

    7. The only winners in this case will be the blood sucke.... eh lawyers, as usual.

  68. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Erm?

    His parents didn't pay the insurance so that makes it OK to spy on him? How does that work then? Did the school even warn him before hand that he wasn't to take the laptop home?

    Anyway that surely only covers one student, what's their excuse for spying on all those other kids? It's like a soap opera so that makes it OK to watch does it?

  69. Anonymous Coward
    Grenade

    The worst part of all this...

    ...would have to be the fake words "surveil" and "surveilled". Is there no noun that cannot be verbed?

  70. Anonymous Coward
    Jobs Horns

    Haaaaaa Love it....

    When the arseholes come unstuck......

    These genuine comedies of "fuckwit-ism" and "shit for brains" - fiasco's - on one hand, just like carrying two armfulls of ocean, it's incredibly difficult to get any firm grip on any of it;

    And yet on the other I kind of roar in laugher and glee at their "high speed crash of explosives, shrapnel and car parts - in ultra slow motion", as it grows in "hard to explain yourself out of it-ness".

    I mean I could understand a soft ware glitch on one or several systems, taking random photos at random times....

    Before it the fault was rectified by dedicated effort to fix it;

    But this...... LOL

    It's looking like acquiring a jumbo sized butt plug lubed with super glue in a non consensual manner.

    LOL - Fuck them all.

    Never thought much of most people in the education system in the first place.

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