Posted on 12/11/2020 3:38:34 PM PST by ransomnote
In May 2016, a student enrolled in a high-school in Shelbyville, Texas, consented to having his phone searched by one of the district’s school resource officers. Looking for evidence of a romantic relationship between the student and a teacher, the officer plugged the phone into a Cellebrite UFED to recover deleted messages from the phone. According to the arrest affidavit, investigators discovered the student and teacher frequently messaged each other, “I love you.” Two days later, the teacher was booked into the county jail for sexual assault of a child.
The Cellebrite used to gather evidence in that case was owned and operated by the Shelby County Sheriff’s Office. But these invasive phone-cracking tools are not only being purchased by police departments. Public documents reviewed by Gizmodo indicate that school districts have been quietly purchasing these surveillance tools of their own for years.
In March 2020, the North East Independent School District, a largely Hispanic district north of San Antonio, wrote a check to Cellebrite for $6,695 for “General Supplies.” In May, Cypress-Fairbanks ISD near Houston, Texas, paid Oxygen Forensics Inc., another mobile device forensics firm, $2,899. Not far away, majority-white Conroe ISD wrote a check to Susteen Inc., the manufacturer of the similar Secure View system, for $995 in September 2016.
Gizmodo has reviewed similar accounting documents from eight school districts, seven of which are in Texas, showing that administrators paid as much $11,582 for the controversial surveillance technology. Known as mobile device forensic tools (MDFTs), this type of tech is able to siphon text messages, photos, and application data from student’s devices. Together, the districts encompass hundreds of schools, potentially exposing hundreds of thousands of students to invasive cell phone searches.
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Solution... DON’T CONSENT TO THE SEARCH!
Kind of a bull$hit story. This tech has been widely available for years.
And for the most part FBI does NOT investigate terrorists.!!
Kind of a bull$hit story. This tech has been widely available for years.
And for the most part FBI does NOT investigate terrorists.!!
Where were these teachers back when I was in high school?????????
That’s not possible for students. They have to sign codes of conduct that include waiving the right to not consent.
The next day Qanon material was uncovered on the teacher's phone.
It's habbening.
Creepy idea, that the FBI might be spying on school kid’s phones, but well, maybe it’s not an all bad idea.
If a government run public school gives you a phone, you probably have to sign some tiny line giving your consent to being ‘wiretapped’ for lack of a more modern phrase at the convenience of the government.
Better yet...Don’t have a damned phone.
The article perpetuates a misconception. The software in question does not spy on the activity on a phone, but it can download the activity on a phone that is in the possession of the investigator. However, the phone usually has to be unlocked for the contents to be accessible.
So are they buying this CIA tech when their classes are on line?
Legally, a minor cannot be required to consent to waiving any of their rights, especially not by a school district. They can refuse to consent to the search. They might be subject to school discipline for the refusal (detention, suspension, etc.) but it would take the police getting a warrant to force compliance.
Most of this software and hardware has annual licensing and maintenance costs associated, which may be what they are currently paying based on some of the dollar amounts listed. I have a number of forensic software suites I use to investigate incidents such as these, and I pay the annual costs even now when distance learning means that I won't be using most of it for a while.
We’re all terrorists to the “authorities”.
Correct.
Parents are also required to sign and I promise you they don’t read it either.
Better solution: Home/private/parochial school.
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