A school district in pennsylvania spied on students through web cameras installed on laptops provided by the district, according to a class action lawsuit filed this week. Seven years later, schoolissued computers are still spying on students, albeit in more subtle ways. In the meantime, the school district hired a consultant to conduct an investigation. Electronic devices distributed in us schools collect unprecedented amounts of personal data on children as young as five years old, according to a new report by electronic frontier foundation eff, dubbed spying on students the result of a twoyear study the surveillance comes under the guise of personalized education.
The it department of the pennsylvania school district accused of spying on students using their schoolissued laptops took the brunt of the blame in an independent report released monday. The cases involve allegations that administrators spied on students through the software installed on 2,300 schoolissued macbooks. Lanrev was rebranded as absolute manage in february 2010. Schoolissued laptops are often available for a highly subsidized price, sometimes even given for free. Report blames it staff for school webcam spying mess. They are intimately familiar with your childs private information and browsing habits. Issued a specific device to each student, and students can take their device home. Most of the states school districts issue laptops to students for free that theyre allowed to take home, but the deal comes with a catch. Almost one third of all studentselementary through high schoolalready use schoolissued digital devices, and many of these devices present a serious risk. My high school issued laptops to all its students, with the capability to remotely activate their cameras. In addition to imposing surveillance on students at home as well as in the classroom,14 ed tech had the potential to make other members of the household feel vulnerable. Spread the loveschoolissued devices harbor a scary secret. The lawyer for the family of the student whose school issued computer was allegedly remotely.
As a result, many school districts around the country are making use of cloudbased educational platforms and assigning laptops and tablets to students. Webcam flap raises bigpicture privacy issues education week. My school issued macbooks, which they later used to spy on. School spy laptops took thousands of photos of students in homes. At the end of the day though it is a school issued computer so you are subject to. Startling new evidence has emerged in the ongoing case of the lower merion school district in philadelphia accused of spying on students in their homes via school issued laptops. A high school student is suing a suburban philadelphia school district for allegedly spying on him outside of school via the webcam of a schoolissued laptop.
Schoolissued devices are spying on your children the. Can my school monitor everything i do on my laptop. District court for the eastern district of pennsylvania, the lower merion school district used remotely activated webcams on school. In rhode island, some schools think they have the right to. When most people think of digital surveillance, images of cameras come to mind. A suburban philadelphia school district remotely activates the cameras in schoolprovided laptops to spy on students in their homes, a lawsuit filed in federal court tuesday alleged. Students spied on with school issued laptops infowars. Schools cant legally spy on your personal life, however since your drive was plugged in they may or may not be allowed to look at the contents. To prevent shootings and suicides, k12 schools are monitoring breathtaking amounts of digital information, often with little regard for civil liberties. A suburban philadelphia school district used school issued laptop webcams to spy on students at home, potentially catching them and their families in compromising situations, a family claims in a. The school in question harriton high school, near philly provides laptops to all of its students as part of an initiative started last fall. Classaction suit alleges schools remotely activate webcams on schoolissued notebooks. When students came home with their schoolissued devices and online homework, parents data concerns extended from students data to the familys home networks and devices. Remember the webcamgate scandal that led to the robbins v.
But if you connect to the school network or install any school software on the system, its possible that there is a clickthrough user agreement with wording that allows them to install software to monitor for unauthorized access to the network, etc. Why schools install spyware on schoolissued laptops. However, there is one concerning matter that many of them are not aware they should be worried about. A suburban philadelphia school district is accused of secretly spying on a student and his parents at their home using a schoolissued computer, reported. District spied on student, parents using schoolissued. District court for the eastern district of pennsylvania, the lower merion school district used remotely activated webcams on schoolissued laptops to spy on students home activities. Whats your opinion on schools spying on studentissued. How to know if your school issued laptop has spyware. Understanding and using technology is fundamental to education in the 21st century. How to know if your schoolissued laptop has spyware installed. In february, a pennsylvania court faced a case in which a public school is accused of spying on students via the webcams attached to schoolissued laptops. School laptop spying allegations raise privacy questions.
According to a memo posted on the districts web site, the laptops are offered in order to let students work on projects and research both at school and at home. At the consortium of school networking conference on. School administrators in pennsylvania are accused of remotely activating the webcams on schoolissued laptops for the sake of. Theonespy computer monitoring software empowers you to groundbreaking features to spy on any kind of desktoplaptops from any location. A school district in philadelphia faces a class action lawsuit after it allegedly issued laptop computers to 1,800 students across two high schools and then used concealed cameras within the machines to spy on students and their parents without their knowledge or consent. Screen spy keeps watch on school students home laptop. Issued a specific device to each student, and it stays at school. Some software and programs installed to spy on the students sends their data automatically to the cloud, and often without their knowledge or consent, or that of their families. Schoolissued computers allow administrators to spy.
Did a school use webcams to spy on students at home. School used student laptop webcams to spy on them at. Students in a philadelphiaarea school district have launched a lawsuit accusing their schools of spying on them at home through webcams installed in laptop computers the district gave them. A high school is accused of using schoolissued laptops to spy on students possibly even catching them unclothed or in other compromising positions. Some software and programs installed to spy on the students send their data automatically to the cloud, and often without. I know one story of a school that issued macs to all the students, but one of the admins was spying through the mac.
But schools are monitoring students digital documents in real time for a wide range of content they see as problematic, from swear words to nude images and pornography to cyberbullying to. Roughly onethird of primary and secondary education k. A family in pennsylvania has accused their sons school district of installing software on schoolissued laptops that allows officials to spy on students at any time through the laptops webcams. Managing schoolissued laptops via tracking software can be a tricky proposition rife with privacy concerns. Make optout processes granular, with separate options for different uses of student data, e. In july 2015, absolute announced its intention to divest absolute manage. The lower merion school district issued apple laptops with webcams to all 2,300 students at its two high schools, but students were never informed the school had the ability to remotely activate. The lower merion school district lmsd laptop spying saga continues to unfold. February 19, 2010 lower merion school district officials brag that they give every one of their 2,300 highschoolers laptop computers to ensure that all. Not only do schoolissued laptops help reduce the digital divide by providing computer access to all students, they can greatly enhance students educational experience by allowing teachers to more easily integrate the use of software and the internet into. School issued laptops spy on students, capture 56,000. If other what other devices were issued by your district school.
The american civil liberties union is calling out rhode islands student computer programs for allowing school officials to remotely spy on students with the devices, including at home. Discussion whats your opinion on schools spying on studentissued chromebooks. Schoolissued computers spy on children in us without. Schoolissued computers spy on children in us without parental consent digital rights group rt april 18, 2017. Schoolissued computer devices provided to onethird of school children across the us collect excessive amounts of highly sensitive personal data on the students without parental consent or even prior notice, a new study finds. Most rhode island school districts participate in 11 programs in which third parties provide free laptop devices to students for the school year. Harriton high school student blake robbins speaks to members of the media after his family filed a federal lawsuit accusing the lower merion school district of using schoolissued laptops to spy. In addition, if you are using the schools wifi, everything you do regardless of whether it is your. More than 70,000 computers have been issued to high school students across the state but education queensland was yesterday unable to say how many had additional monitoring software. District investigators have finished their investigation, concluding that web cameras were activated by school district employees about 80 times in the past two school years, capturing nearly 56,000 images of students, their homes and copies of the programs or files running on their screens. School spy laptops took thousands of photos of students. Spread the loveschool issued devices harbor a scary secret. Pennsylvania schools spying on students using laptop webcams, claims lawsuit. They come with unresolved ethical questions and real costs though.
A high school student in suburban philadelphia is suing his school district for allegedly spying on him through the webcam of a schoolissued laptop. The chromebooks, ipads, or other tech devices your child borrows from school each year are digital spies. Still, there are privacy risks, such as when a student uses a schoolissued computer to research health issues or access information about contraception or abortion or explore or. Loaded up cloudready chromium os on a separate computer, its under the policy, the software was there. Digital surveillance is already in place at shopping malls. According to the filings in blake j robbins v lower merion school district pa et al, the laptops issued to highschool students in the wellheeled.
However, there have been several reported cases where schools or colleges install spyware, or require parents to put spyware on their childrens devices. The irony here is that the school district was being very progressive in issuing laptops to students. The sale of absolute manage to heat software was completed on october 5, 2015, for. Pennsylvania schools spying on students using laptop.