Pennsylvania School Accused of Cyberspying

Blake Robbins never imagined the computer he got from school could peer into his personal life.

"I thought there was no way they could do this in my home," Blake said.

His parents, Holly and Michael Robbins, filed a federal lawsuit against his suburban Philadelphia school district, claiming administrators spied on him using a remote-controlled webcam on his school-issued laptop, reports CBS News correspondent Michelle Miller.

"I don't feel that school has the right to put cameras inside the kids' home, inside their bedrooms and spy on children," Holly said.

The suit claims a Harriton High School official enabled the device, concerned the sophomore was "engaged in improper behavior in his home." An assistant principal later confronted the student, citing a photograph taken by the webcam as evidence.

"She thought I was selling drugs which is completely false," Blake said.

The camera is right here. And the lens is able to pick up a wide angle shot of anything directly in front of it. One of these Apple Computers is provided to every high school student in the Lower Merion School District, 2,300 in all.

The school says the feature is only used to locate a lost, stolen or missing laptop, and that they used the feature 42 times to recover 28 laptops over 14 months.

But the family insists they never reported the laptop as missing.

Other families are concerned.

"I just received an e-mail from my daughter who is very upset saying, 'Mom, I have that laptop open all the time in my bedroom even when I'm changing,'" one worried mother said.

Many privacy advocates say this may be a first.

"This is one of the most egregious privacy violations I've ever heard of," said Marc Rotenberg, the director of the Electronic Privacy Information Center. "People reasonably wouldn't have even thought of the possibility that the school districts intended to view their children remotely and surreptitiously."

School officials say they've now disabled the feature. But with reports of the FBI opening an investigation into possible wiretap violations, it is now the school district who has to worry about scrutiny.

[HGOODGUY]

I do not condone stealing or whatever you want to call it of computers from schools and I especially do not condone spying "Big Brother" style but has anybody figured out the fact that if a computer or any other piece of equipment goes missing from a student then the school can simply bill the parents for the lost item??

That part covers the "theft" part however the part about invasion of privacy is a heavy duty felony and should be delt with severly!!!

[barbaram99]

As far as skin colour it matters not to me..As of race we all are one race thr human race..As for a macbook/notebook/laptop being stoden..Each has a name given thr machines by OEMs..The staff should record that and keep track of them by GPS/lo-jack..The school does not have a right to spy in the homes of students..I have seen blacks who have whiter skin than I.I met one .I am write.. We as a people are appalled that they turnt on the webcams and looked in their homes..That my desr poster is wrong..Would ye as a female/male/trensgender feel comfortable having no idea who/what is watching ye bathe,using the loo. changing yer clothes,sitting there going yer daily things in yer home. I think not. I am aware Maes have that bloody webcams in all there machines..I am a MS Windows user. I am 55' It was different when I was a student..Yep I stood upto the plate for a black child..We rode the same bus. He was the only glack child and I was the only legally blind child on that school bus.
Today there are cameras just about everywhite in this Nation we call the USA.They are in businesses,schools,buses,etc..The issed the students computers to do their works so they were allowed to have say machine..What is WRONG is the bloody school staff turnt the cams ob to watch..That is wrong and as a layperson illegal..It falls under the wiretap act of 1934. The year my late father was born and later was in this nation's military. I have systems that don't have cams..I don't want it. As people we need to draw the line and never ever become a police state..Read 1984..That book is appalling..Students are people..They do dumb things..We don't need Big Brother/Sister or a Nanny Gov't.

[differnet]

I have to wonder, if the student involved wasn't some lily white, upper middle class kid from the suburbs, would you all be screaming that the school was in the wrong. You would probably be assuming that the laptop was indeed stolen and that the school was only trying to get its property back. I think the unequivocal support of the student says as much about your prejudices as anything. Let's the court decide if he stole the laptop and negated his privacy rights or that the school is lying about why it turned on the camera.

[IQ80]

I wonder if you read the article as the computer was given to him, from his school. Thus, not stolen.

[differnet]

The courts will work this out. If the school can show that they believed the computer was stolen (or that it was being used to further an illegal activity), they are totally within their rights to turn on the camera to help catch the thief. That's already been adjudicated over and over again. However, if they cannot show that the computer was stolen and they turned it on for some other reason, they will loose the suit. This is why we have a tort system. Let the courts and a jury figure it out.

[lavend3r]

This is for "Clemsson", who's raging about the THIEVES & PUNKS & how everybody must be IDIOTS to defend this kid because he's a PUNK and a THIEF and the schools have every RIGHT to come into THE PUNK'S bedroom to get their STOLEN laptop back . . . uh guy, as a matter of fact, bgldhill is right: you CAN'T read. Yeah, the article DID say the schools often use the GPS crap on the laptops to track down stolen computers, as the quote you cut & pasted demonstrated. However, that is NOT what this story is about. Try THIS cut & paste from the story:

"The suit claims a Harriton High School official enabled the device, concerned the sophomore was "engaged in improper behavior in his home." An assistant principal later confronted the student, citing a photograph taken by the webcam as evidence.

"She thought I was selling drugs which is completely false," Blake said."

Can you IMAGINE? Remember being 15? All those hormones raging . . . see where I'm going? Can you IMAGINE finding out they were WATCHING you? OMG!!!

And furthermore, does THAT quote sound like all this has to do with a stolen laptop?! Really?! Here's a newsflash for ya: They were WATCHING the kid to see WHAT HE WAS DOING!!! NOT looking for his "stolen" laptop -- btw at no time in the story did anyone ever indicate they thought HIS laptop was stolen! This had NOTHING to do with GPS tracking!

Seriously, "Clemsson", you'd be OK if you found out your employer was watching you while you were blithely wandering around your bedroom? Perhaps naked at the time? Or "with" your wife? That would be OK with you, because after all it's your company's computer, so therefore you've waived all rights? Or so they'd tell you, and so the sheeple, such as you, would believe and accept? OOOOKAAAAY. There's NO common ground here . . .

Here's an option, folks: when "they" (whoever they may be), give you a computer, especially a Mac (and btw I have my first Mac and would now NEVER have anything else) PUT MASKING TAPE OVER THE #$%!% CAMERA LENS, especially if it's an iMac (that's a large desktop model). Or -- it it's a laptop -- keep it closed, in a very dark, unlit closet when not in use. If "they" complain, tell 'em to GTH. They can TRACK the computer with GPS, and can obviously tell it's where it's supposed to be: with the person they gave it to. WHAT MORE DO THEY NEED? Why, on God's green earth, do they need to WATCH us?!

We can write comment after comment about this travesty, but the bottom line is: THEY DO NOT NEED TO *WATCH* US TO TRACK THEIR *@#$ COMPUTERS. No matter how much you argue -- looking at you, Mr. "Clemsson" -- you can NOT defend THAT.

It is NOT the school's business to WATCH our kids in their bedrooms, and willy-nilly decide they're drug dealers based on some vague "photo evidence". What the F? They teach practically from birth that all morality is "personal" & "relative". Then, if a kid is a little bit different from the rest of the madding crowd, they ram psychotropic drugs (that are considered Class II drugs -- you know, like heroin!) down his throat. THEN they SPY on the kid when they suspect he has no morals and is doing/selling drugs! I repeat: What the F?!!!

If, as a parent, you have no qualms over this, and are "grateful" the school is taking such an interest in your little Johnny -- more interest than you have in him, apparently -- PLEASE, don't have any more kids! The rest of us would like to retain what few rights we have left in this country, and aren't willing to have them stripped away on the basis that YOUR kids need watchin'

[HGOODGUY]

Would you like students to really distrust the system?

Just keep this up!!!

[nh4ronpaul]

This is a UN/UNESCO school.... what did you expect?

www.IBO.org should be banned from USA.

[barbaram99]

This is America..We have sep of church and state..Sharia Law.NOT HERE..The founding Fathers stated this nation will not have state religion..

[barbaram99]

Let me make one thing Clear I not for the crooks who steal a child's school issued notebook. Yet there are ways to track it by GPS or lo jack. The teachers need to know who has them and write it down..I am aware students do steal from the schools..some do..I read the article..every notebook has a name made of letters and numbers that OEMs give the machines..Dell does I know that..I am also aware notebooks are stolen ..I don't leave mine alone where I take it with me..We as a people addressing the spying of them in the home. That is wrong..I can understand the school put money into buying them..Yet the students use them for class etc..Are they worried the children will install games.. On school machines..Children have parents..Parents know their duties ..
The schools have a right to not over step their grounds in this matter. If they think the computer is lost/stolen then is there not proper channels to go thru. They know right from wrong..We don't want them taking what clearly is not theirs. We also feel the need to address the issue of privacy..

[Clemsson]

When Sharia Law is inevitably accepted in America, thieves like these miscreant little thugs will have a hand chopped off for stealing a laptop from their school. And the parents? Their crime is worse still. They will have their tongues cut out for lying about our hard-working, underpaid teachers.