An Invasion of Privacy

Not long ago the Pennsylvania school district of Lower Merion came under scrutiny for questionable use of the remote activation of the webcam in school issued laptops. In short, there is a class action suit filed against the school claiming that the school used the webcams to spy on students, without disclosing the remote activation abilities to students or parents. The school has responded that their policy was to only activate the cameras in cases of lost or stolen laptops, but the fact that a student was disciplined for behavior at home with a photo taken by his laptop's webcam belies that claim.

Frankly, I'm appalled by the idea that a school could use the educational materials it issues to students to spy on the students while they are not at school. In my opinion the school's responsibility for student behavior ends when the student leaves campus. Additionally, as others have pointed out, laptops are frequently open and on while people dress or perform other personal activities. Thinking of my own personal laptop, which I take with me when I travel, and how I use it in the morning at a hotel, I'd worry if someone could remotely activate my webcam and watch what I was doing. Adding that the students are under 18 also raises the possibility of child porn laws being broken. All told, while the ability to track thefts of the laptops is useful, the opportunity for abuse and misuse far outweigh the good.

A few critics have raised the idea that problems generated by a "free" laptop from your high school are not really problems, and that these students should suck it up and stop whining. But honestly, a person's privacy is worth more than a $400 laptop. The idea that a person should be willing to trade their privacy and submit to being spied on by their school just to get a laptop they can use, and a decent education is so blatantly false that I can't imagine someone proposing it.

I will be interested to see how this case turns out. I'm glad that at a minimum the school has voluntarily disabled the remote activation system and the new version of the tracking software they have installed will no longer have this feature. Now to make sure my personal laptop's webcam can't be hacked. . .