Posted on 02/25/2010 5:18:17 AM PST by Kid Shelleen
Which is an allegation that is only being brought up by one side. So far, no such other evidence of this tool being used for the purpose you stated exists.
Like I said, hang them all before the facts are in and the trial is done. Just don't pretend to hold any moral high ground.
BTW... I have my personal laptop here. Sorry to disappoint you.
Nobody’s comprehension is in question.
You’re looking to CYA and the school’s using this as an example.
However, you are still blaming the parents, the kids, everyone else under the sun but the school district, for the misuse of the webcams deliberately done by the school district and/or it’s representatives.
On school time? While you’re getting paid?
Then you need to go back and re-read what I've written. We have one sides story, and pieces of the other sides. I'm giving my insight as an tech guy and trying to keep you from forming a lynch mob before all the facts are in. And yes, as parents we are responsible for raising our children and monitoring their use of things like technology and the Internet.
Or is that too much to ask for these days?
Besides... I'm on my lunch break right now. Left over corned beef and steamed cabbage.
meh. Easy hack.
Government work. How about finding something productive to do instead of blankly staring into space? You know, like employees in the real world do?
You sure take long lunch breaks looking at the times of your posts.
What have you done? Other than disparage your betters?
Never mind... I don't really want to know.
School officials admitted they'd been activating the webcams remotely and photographing people. Their excuse was that they were trying to recover lost/stolen laptops. So, we've only been discussing what school officials themselves admit to doing.
And it sounds like you yourself know better, if you've argued against allowing students in your district take home district-owned laptops. I'm not sure why you're disagreeing with the rest of us. There's no lynch mob forming here. Most of us said IT is being thrown under the bus.
In working in IT for a school district, you probably could tell us more about what's really going on in public schools. But, there's no language in the agreement you posted that says the webcams could be activated remotely and people photographed at home.
Yes, the court case will tell us more. In the meantime, there's nothing wrong with talking about the story. The rest of us may not work in IT for public schools. That doesn't mean we don't have experience in other areas where questions about privacy arise. At the company where I worked, we had to be very specific in the small print about photographs taken of customers and how they might be used.
I also had to monitor calls at another company. I could pick up and listen to any telephone conversation in the sales department and write up reports for the employee's file. Sometimes I would catch them in personal conversations. When they'd complain, I'd point out they were working on company property on company time and they were told to use a different line for personal calls. I knew my own calls were monitored; it was company property, not mine.
So, we all understand about monitoring private property and business. Monitoring how students use computers at school is a no-brainer, too. Monitoring what websites they visit using school-issued laptops would be another no-brainer, IMHO.
But, giving something to people to take to their own homes and then using it to photograph them at home, without their full knowledge and consent, is a very different matter.
This wasn't just perverts trying to catch the kiddies nekkid. Because there is more to this than just the plaintiffs side and the media hype. 42 other incidences according to the schools press release where the same technology was used to recover stolen equipment.
Should they get the smack down for those as well? Or is recovering your own property verbotten now?
I worked for a mutual fund about 12 years ago. Keyloggers, recorded lines, laptops for business use that WERE monitored no matter where they were or what they were used for. Talking about an atmosphere of paranoia and "Big Brother"! But a contract is a contract and property ownership is absolute.
There is other documentation on that schools website that cannot be accessed by just anyone. You need a domain account to get to it. I'm still betting at some point the kids were told about the LanDev/LoJack recovery software.
Like I said, I guess we'll see.
I've been here ten hours and I'm beat. Later...
Should they get the smack down for those as well? Or is recovering your own property verbotten now?
It was in the contract that the parents signed that that was how the laptops could be located, so if someone reported the laptop missing or stolen, the school would be within its contractual rights to activate the webcam in an effort to recover it, which is NOT the circumstances under which the webcam was activated.
The school district was WRONG for activating the webcam on a laptop that was not reported missing or stolen and then chastising a student for *inappropriate behavior* using information illegally and inappropriately obtained using the webcam.
Excuse me? My you think very highly of yourself. Too bad we all don't agree with you. So who is metmom's betters? YOU? I think not if you are at work & I see you post on times when it isn't lunch hour. If you think you are better then anybody on this thread or this forum you are sadly mistaken. You are rude & you are wrong to be FReeping on the job. If you were self employed then I could understand. However you brag you work in schools & yet you use the money paid from tax dollars to FReep? Somebody needs web cam on you to make sure you are doing your job IMO.
According to what I read, the school admitted they never even told the families they would activate the webcams to recover lost/stolen laptops, either. If that’s true, they’re really in deep trouble.
But, I guess we’ll find out more when the case reaches court. It sure has us all thinking now about laptop webcams and how they might be used. I never knew. (Then again, I don’t have a laptop. I hate using those little computers.) I admit I would’ve shrugged this story off as a conspiracy theory if I’d heard it on the street.
Is it standard procedure for companies to photograph people at home through company-owned laptops?
I can understand a keylogger on company-owned computers/laptops and recorded lines on company-owned phone lines. That's company property. My husband says they take screenshots where he works - pictures of what the employee is looking at onscreen - but I think he said the employees are notified. And, of course, businessowners keep cameras on their properties.
But, photographing what someone is doing at home through a webcam is different because they're on their own property. It's one thing to record their keystrokes and keep a record of the websites they visit because they're using a laptop owned by someone else. It's quite another issue when what they're doing at home - things that have nothing to do with company property - is being photographed and recorded.
Add to that: This story isn't even about a private company. It's about a public school and minors who are forced by law to attend school. The laptops were paid for with their parents' tax money. There are so many different issues here.
So now you are changing your story and admitting they knew this LoJack software was installed?
As for the facts, hopefully those will come in trial. Not that I think it'd change your mind much...
Yes. I do. I'm not the best person on this thread, nor even this forum. But at least I'm not the kind of pond scum that would convict a person before all the facts are known.
To me it's about contractual obligations and property ownership. They signed the contract. The property belongs to the school.
If evidence of criminal intent comes to light, trial and incarceration. If not, then not. Either way, if it was my District... First thing I'd do is stop letting kids take those resources home. Period.
My "betters"? Who would that be?
I'm not changing my story. I don't know if LoJack was installed. I am not up on the latest computer security software. If the parents knew, and that seems to be up for debate anyway, that the software was installed that would allow the school to remotely activate the webcams to locate missing of stolen computers, that still does not excuse their actions in activating a webcam on a computer NOT reported missing or stolen.
It does not excuse or justify the vice principal from chastising the student based on ill gotten information.
It in no way justifies blame shifting the responsibility of not being spied on in the privacy of their own home to the parents. I can't think of one good reason why a school official who may have inadvertently turned on the webcam and found they were observing the student in his own room, from simply turning off the camera and going to the parents and explaining what happened and apologizing and taking steps to ensure that it would not happen again.
Silly parents for trusting the school district. I guess that's a lesson well learned and one you yourself are advocating. DON'T TRUST PUBLIC SCHOOLS, EVER.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.