privacy

Image by alancleaver_2000 via Flickr

So it appears that a school in Pennsylvania claims it has the right to take pictures through the webcam of their students! CNET got the scoop from Computerworld that the Lower Merion School District in Ardale, PA remotely controls the webcams on the laptops they provide to their students to spy on them in their homes. Are you serious??

Let’s think about this for a second. Without the student knowing, which very well could be a minor, the school district can remotely control the webcam at anytime and snap photos as they please. What if the student was changing clothes or coming out of the shower? This is a huge invasion of privacy!

The Robbins family is filing a class-action law suit against the school district for obvious reasons. “The suit accuses the school district of violating the federal Electronic Communications Privacy Act (ECPA), and other federal and state statues, including the Pennsylvania Wiretapping and Electronic Surveillance Act.” (source)

I’m not a genius, but this is just wrong. 1,800 students were giving a laptop with a webcam that the school can access..talk about a network of invasion of privacy!

What do you think about this? Do you think the school is justified since it’s their laptops?

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