School spies on kids through student laptops

[Sir_Die_alot]

Remote-activated webcams are public knowledge. Or should be.

I believe the school has every right to use them on their property.

If you are ever "issued" a laptop from anyone, be it for work or education, you should have no expectation of privacy from those that issued it to you.

That said, of course, the school has an obligation to its students to notify them they should have no expectation of privacy. I wouldn't be surprised if that is part of a form student must sign to get the computer. If it isn't, it should be.

Even if you tell students they should no expectation of privacy, some will still do stupid and/or illegal things. If a student performs illegal acts on a school computer, is the school liable? Probably. That's why I am not sympathetic to students here.

We don't let our kids surf privately. Whatever they do on the Internet has to be POS-approved.

With the current technology, if you are naked in front of your webcam, you shouldn't be surprised that someone is watching. (Well, in MY case, I would be.) A piece of tape does wonders, as does the "shutdown" command.

If a school admin is "trolling" looking for visual titillation, that's another thing. The school should have guidelines to control this.

-Van

I think there is a big difference between software that tracks your habits when using the computer that does not belong to you and what is effectively a spy camera.

Edit: I'll take that a bit further. Do we really want wings of the government, even if it's just "education", policing what goes on inside our homes? I don't. I hope they make a very serious example of whoever thought this was a bright idea and everyone who signed off on it.