Judge Orders School To Alert Students, Parents To Webcam Photos Taken
from the 58,000-photos dept
As the details of more extensive webcam spying by the Lower Merion school district has broken it became clear how much the district tried to hide its activities. Originally, the school suggested it had only taken webcam images 42 times, but the details noted 58,000 photos were taken -- a bit of a difference. Now a magistrate judge has ordered the school district to alert students and parents who were in those photos of their existence, and allow the students to see the images -- though not to get copies of them. The students will actually have the right to view the images without their parents and to exclude "sensitive" photos from being seen by their parents.Of course, one thing that hasn't been answered yet is how widely this sort of software is used in other schools. When the Lower Merion story broke, we pointed to a PBS Fronline episode where an IT guy proudly showed off similar technology, joking about his ability to secretly spy on kids. This clearly isn't something that was just used in a single school. You have to wonder if other schools are deleting evidence now... or realizing they should be telling their students about what kind of photos they've been storing of students.
Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.
Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.
While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.
–The Techdirt Team
Filed Under: high school, webcam
Reader Comments
Subscribe: RSS
View by: Time | Thread
Pick one...
Parentheses or double hyphens, you have to pick one. It's like the red pill and the blue pill, you can choose either, but not both....
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Pick one...
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Pick one...
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Pick one...
the body is not very tidy either...
"PBS FronLine"
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Dark, you forgot the smiley
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Dark, you forgot the smiley
Is it right and I'm missing something? I don't mean to be a grammar nazi (ha!-- but I hate spending two whole minutes desparately searching for the other parenthasee....parenthasi....whatever....;
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Dark, you forgot the smiley
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Re: Dark, you forgot the smiley
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
where is the outrage
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
You have to wonder if other schools are deleting evidence now
I dont, they are.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re:
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re:
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re:
And I think we all agree with your intention: these kids shouldn't have been spied on. It also seems pretty strong that the capability was used outside the scope of its ostensible use.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Not only are they purging pic's ...
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
it sure wouldn't at my house in high school. i would have had linux on it before i even got off the bus :)
Heh, too bad the same software that takes pictures can easily run automated linux scripts to check for that exact thing.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
super DRM?
I was wondering what kind of magic DRM would allow that; then I realized they weren't doing it over the web but must bring them into a room and display them on a screen.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Child Porn anyone?
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Child Porn anyone?
It feels like a scenario like this is where the laws should be a lot more relevant.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Copyright
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
The students will actually have the right to view the images without their parents and to exclude "sensitive" photos from being seen by their parents.
im not generally one to kneejerk react to anything at all, but that kinda leaped off the page at me.
exactly what kind of "sensitive" images would they have and exactly how is it legal for them to NOT allow the parents to see those images?
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
Point is, teenagers do things in the privacy of their room expecting it to be, well, private.
As far as the legality goes, I imagine as the kids are victims, there is no requirement for the parents to be in the room for them to identify pictures of themselves.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re:
Please, let's not downplay this. The entire world could be energy independent if we could figure out a way to harness the masturbatory energy of teenagers. For a school to have a window to this is silly....
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Re:
And I am extremely happy that my parents (well, you) also don't have a window into this. :)
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
There may be images that could cause discord between the child and the parents, putting the child in further jeopardy (reading an old XY magazine for example). The child is probably traumatized by the invasion of privacy as it is. There is no clear reason to make the child suffer further by having to explain her actions to parents as well.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Speaking of trauma...
[ link to this | view in chronology ]