One of the stranger bits of news that we've been tracking lately has dealt with the Lower Merion School District and its use of monitoring software in the Apple MacBooks that it has distributed to 2,300 of its students.
Student Blake J. Robbins is suing Lower Merion School District in Philadelphia allegedly remotely activating his webcam. The remote activation of his webcam was exposed when student Blake J. Robbins was disciplined for "improper behavior in his home" by the Vice Principal, who provided a photo taken by the webcam as evidence.
The school confirmed that it has the ability to control the webcams, but that the capability has since been disabled in response to the recent issue.
It seems that the Lower Merion schools aren't the only one with the spying capabilities that were apparently used in the current class action lawsuit. A reader of Boing Boing pointed out that PBS aired a documentary a few weeks ago called "Digital Nation." In it, vice-principle of Intermediate School 339, Bronx, NY, Dan Ackerman showed how he's able to remotely monitor students through webcam.
Ackerman demonstrates the webcam spying ability: "They don't even realize we are watching," "I always like to mess with them and take a picture," and "9 times out of 10, THEY DUCK OUT OF THE WAY."
Oddly there are no questions regarding student privacy, which is likely how the recent class action lawsuit came about.
Click here to watch the video at PBS. Skip to around 4:36 to see the remote webcam monitoring.