School Confirms Ability to Control Student Webcams

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warezme

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Yea, what? Instead of disciplining the kid for doing whatever it was that was bad enough to brought to the attention of the principal, the so called "parents" are going to sue the school??

This is after they basically steal school equipment (laptop borrowed not returned or paid for), but what else would you expect from these parents. What BS.
 

justsomeone

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Thanks for the follow up. This is pretty interesting. One thing though. The principal stated the laptops were provided by the school. How could this laptop not be paid for if the school was providing them?
 

zoemayne

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so if its not paid for instead of going on the persons credit they consider it stolen........ stupid is it really that serious this is a school not a gov or company.
 

False_Dmitry_II

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They're providing MACBOOKS!? of all things? Seems really expensive for a school. Why aren't they netbooks or at least regular laptops? How did they manage to convince anyone to go this far in the budget?
 
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Warezme,
How stupid are you? A provided devise that has not been paid for has does not come under stolen it comes under other classifications whereas the computer can be taken back via legal means not by spying. At the point the computer were not paid for the student could be told he would be failing school or something else. However I caught what others have read in that they were "Provided" not "sold" necessarily. This is a clear case of trying to justify why your spying and trying to catch a young child in a compromising position for your personal gratification. I think the FBI should investigate to see if the computers have been used to violate the children in a pornographic manor. This is not just a rant I am serious this is a SERIOUS matter! If the principle and others are not fired and possibly jailed something is wrong!
 

Ramar

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One of the first high schools in the US? Bullshit. I graduated in 07 and got mine freshman year. 7 years late to being "One of the first" to offer laptops. And ours weren't creepy as hell.
 

cracklint

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Why would a public school district use state tax dollars to buy overpiced apple laptops?

why would they let students take them home?

In what scenario would it be remotely okay to enable the webcam? Teenage girls? hello! this is an IT pervs dream come true!

I would be suing the school board, firing the principal, and calling for the arrest of the vice pricipal.

 
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Wow, apparently someone wanted to get arrested. This might be the most stupid thing I've ever heard. The kid should have put his balls on the camera, then called the police because whoever was watching the video was breaking the law by possessing child porn.
 
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Jeez, if I want to look at child porn I just have to become a principle! Sweet!
 

ominous prime

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Holy invasion of privacy batman...

oh wait, it's a school invading it, we don't have rights at schools anymore do we?

They need to cease this web cam hijacking. There are much better ways to track down a missing laptop. There's no oversight, and too much room for abuse. It allows creepy IT guys and gals to spy on underage students doing questionable things in front of their computers.
 
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It seems like many of you are interpreting this different than I. It looks to me that this particular laptop was not checked out or showed up missing or something. They activated the webcam to recover their property and find out who had it. Who knows what they saw when the webcam was activated. This is nothing new to have location tracking and activating the webcam when a laptop is lost or stolen. The company I worked for had that capability for years has used it to recover several stolen laptops. If the laptop was not missing then the school may have a problem and have some explaining to do.
 

logitic

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The sick thing there is no telling how many times the pervert principle watched someone get dressed for school. There should be criminal charges brought up!
 

TheDuke

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"The principal made a statement today during school saying the school district would never use the camera to spy on kids and that the whole situation was being blown out of proportion."

What did they just do. They spied on him and now they're trying to deny any wrongdoing. Sickening
 

thedreadfather

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[citation][nom]False_Dmitry_II[/nom]They're providing MACBOOKS!? of all things? Seems really expensive for a school. Why aren't they netbooks or at least regular laptops? How did they manage to convince anyone to go this far in the budget?[/citation]
At my high school they had MacBooks (the really crappy ones). I think there might be a school deal. But regardless, it's more of a "Hey look, we spent more money on technology than you (other schools) do, we're better." kind of attitude. Unfortunately, schools that waste tax dollars are somehow seen as "elite" or "high-class" etc.
 

dheadley

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If the person was given the laptop to use for the school yearthen it is not theirs. That is not the same as saying they gave it to him so it is his. On school property or off, day or night, no matter the situation, they laptop is and always was the schools property 100%. You people going off are not being realistic here.

The kid may have not done a report or homework assignment and said it was because he couldn't find his laptop so they turned it on to see who had it, only it was in the kids house all along. You have no idea what the facts are in this case. If he reported it lost with the intention of keeping it then he should be slapped with criminal charges. There could be a hundred situations where they had EVERY right to turn the camera on.

All you privacy freaks don't get on your high horse and defend the rights of the crimal that steals someones smartphone and then gets caught because of a picture taken by it. No you talk smack and say the loser deserved it and praise the owner that tracked them down to get their shit back. But let it be an establishment that does the same thing and they are the evil ______ (government, corporation, school, police etc..)
 

the_krasno

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[citation][nom]justsomeone[/nom]Thanks for the follow up. This is pretty interesting. One thing though. The principal stated the laptops were provided by the school. How could this laptop not be paid for if the school was providing them?[/citation]

Then the obvious answer is that the school stole them!
 

weegee64

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If my high school provided me with a laptop with a webcam, the first thing I would do is install a fresh copy of Windows, and flash an official BIOS. That way, they can't turn on my webcam, or use any other keyloggers/tracking programs that may have been installed. I wonder if the school has a policy against installing new OSes on the MacBooks?
 
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