Has the paranoia for safety in our nation’s public schools risen to the point that it validates schools to spy on its students via their laptop webcams?
15 year-old Philadelphia high school student Blake Robbins was innocently using his high school-issued Apple Macbook at home, when 400 images were unknowingly captured of him via the Macbook’s webcam. The spy? His high school. The high school even photographed Robbins as he slept. Some images revealed him eating candy. The school used the photograph with candy as a basis for accusing him of drug use.
At no time prior to issuing the laptop did the school forewarn or obtain informed consent from the Harriton High School students in Lower Merion School District for a software to spy on them while they had their laptops open.
While the intent of Lower Merion School District was commendable – integrating technology into the 21st century classroom – the means infringed upon the students’ reasonable expectation of privacy. 2,300 students received the laptops. An expense to the school district, it installed a tracking software on the laptops to track where they were located to locate lost and stolen laptops. However, the tracking abilities were exploited, capturing over 56,000 images of Harriton High School students.
Robbins sued the school district in Philadelphia alleging the tort of invasion of privacy. The case settled out of court this week for $610,000. $175,000 to Robbins for invasion of privacy, $10,000 to another student and $475,000 in attorney fees.
During a time of online transparency with Facebook, Twitter and Foursquare, the younger generations are struggling with what boundaries to set for oneself and orally for an individual’s right to privacy. While information and knowledge is power, invading one’s bedroom of a laptop user without prior, informed consent is a blatant invasion of privacy and breach of the law.
For additional legal commentary, visit: Washington Legal Times
this actually isn’t 100% accurate. the lanrev system captured 56,000 images, but most were not of students at all. six computers that were stolen and tracked to pakistan accounted for more than 60% of the shots. the system was automated. once it was turned on, it snapped a screen shot and web shot every 15 minutes, regardless of what/who was in front of the screen. the investigators found that most of the remaining images were of blank walls and empty rooms. no one was asleep at the wheel. when the system turned on, there were no procedures in place to ensure that it was turned off. in some cases, the cameras went on snapping for months at a time because no one had closed the loop and deactivated the system after a computer had been found or recovered. that’s why the feds didn’t find criminal intent.
Maurice,
Thank you for your comment with additional information. Your insight explains why only two plaintiffs, that we know of from media reports, received settlements. The bigger issue, however, is not what was captured, but rather that the school was capturing images in students’ personal space without obtaining the students’ prior informed consent.