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...