School Didn't Spy, Just Had Crappy Privacy Policies
Report says that school had awful privacy policies, but it didn't spy on students.
The saga of the school webcam spying scandal could be coming to an rather anticlimactic end. According to a report conducted by attorneys hired by Lower Merion School District, the school staff did not spy on students.
Specifically, the school's IT department was found to be lacking in policies to protect student privacy, but the report said that there was no evidence to suggest that students were actively spied upon.
In the case of 15-year-old Blake Robbins, the IT department had enabled the webcam and tracking software because Robbins was using a loaner laptop while his was in for repair. When the IT department discovered that Robbins had outstanding insurance fees, it tried to retrieve the laptop through its tracking software.
The IT department discovered what it believed to be signs of concerning behavior, and alerted the school leaders. While the school principal refrained from pursuing Robbins for off-campus activities, vice principal Lindy Matsko discussed with the young student about what he believed to be drug involvement – later revealed to be candy.
The findings of the report at this stage appear to be a little incongruous with the information that we've read so far. For example, records along with thousands of captured images have shown IT department workers corresponding in emails regarding the spying of student chat activities.
Nevertheless, the report makes a clear claim that the Lower Merion School District has some serious problems with policy, though spying isn't one of those issues. How the legal system will interpret this report done by a law firm chosen by the schools remains to be seen.
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lol... and thats why game stop legally owned 7,500 souls as an april fools joke. people just don't read the fine print
Guess being a lawyer requires a lot of "creativity"...lol
By the way, what does that "outstanding insurance fees" means?
I thought the school loan the laptop to students for free. Didn't know students need to have the laptop insured to keep the laptop.
... hmm... that is interesting....
They lie.
Aaaand a busted criminal tries to look good for the media.
In other news, the sky is blue.
lol... and thats why game stop legally owned 7,500 souls as an april fools joke. people just don't read the fine print
I wish I had 7500 souls. I only have 2 extra, one from a buddy that needed a quarter for a can of coke and other that lost it to me in a poker game. 7500 would be nice though, but with 2 extra my soul and I can sip lemonade under an umbrella while my 2 extra souls do all the rowing.
Hah that's sad. Maybe there should be, you know, a system of regulations regarding school network privacey and security...
So in plain language children don't have right to privacy under the law so it's ok to take a snapshot of half naked middle school girls?.
Sounds like they are pulling same stunt as the roman catholic church deny that anything bad happened and sweep it under the rug to hide it.
A privacy breach is still a privacy breach and therefore spying in my mind.
Spying (transitive verb): 1.to watch or observe closely and secretly, usually with unfriendly purpose
Yourdictionary.com
Hmm...sounds like spying to me considering many students were unaware initially that they were being watched and that they most likely had not been told ahead of time the possibility IT staff may remotely activate the webcam.
The law firm representing the school district says no spying occurred, and you accept that at face value? The same report says that the Robbins was the only family where the webcam was turned on for non-payment of insurance fees, and that when the tracking software was turned on, the IT guy, Perbix, sent an email saying that Blake was on-line at home. They then took images for 15 days. That is spying - it is not recovery of a computer, no matter what the defending lawyers say. By the way, the same report says the parents were told that the consequence of not paying the insurance fee was liability for damage - not that the computer would be considered missing or stolen.
Yeah, I'm still working on how (paraphrased) "A report done by lawyers the school hired says the school did nothing wrong" has any value, whatsoever.
They lie.
The cake is a lie!
What I am confused by is that there is no mention in any of the reports that they tried to simply ask the student to bring the laptop back. I could see giving them some slack if the student in question was not showing up for school and was not responding to emails/home phone calls which to me would be the first course of action.
BS
Yeah right and DC doesn't have a bunch of Communists in charge right now either.
What I am confused by is that there is no mention in any of the reports that they tried to simply ask the student to bring the laptop back. I could see giving them some slack if the student in question was not showing up for school and was not responding to emails/home phone calls which to me would be the first course of action.
+10 & no kidding. I believe that when the story originally broke, they described the student as a member of the National Honor Society, so he must be showing up for class.
Oh yeah, and there is a court mandated gag order regarding this lawsuit, so any "report" coming out of this story is not from any legal representation of this case, but more like a PR firm trying to sway public opinion.
I read an article recently where a guy in the military received a picture of his 3 or 4 year old daughter in a swimsuit sent to him by his wife. He was charged with child pornography.
If that happens to someone in the military for having a picture of his own child, these people should already be serving multiple life sentences with no possibility of parole.
I don't see how this school has any leg to stand on. Each new report comes out with a different reason why they did it, but then often ignores a lot of facts to make their point. Each excuse falls flatter than the last as there was absolutely no reason or justification for this. The lawyers representing the school are grasping for straws here with this latest report. Wonder what story they'll come up with next.
My team of lawyers has released its report concluding that I did not actually run that red light, though my braking procedure might be considered less than 100% effective given the excessive speed at which I was traveling. Fortunately, the school bus in the intersection was able absorb my momentum before any traffic infraction could occur.
So in plain language children don't have right to privacy under the law so it's ok to take a snapshot of half naked middle school girls?.Sounds like they are pulling same stunt as the roman catholic church deny that anything bad happened and sweep it under the rug to hide it.
From all that I can tell, you have no legal right of privacy until you are 18...
Oh god.... THAT'S the excuse? I still think there should be some kind of legal action.
By this reasoning a peedo can buy a child a laptop and have it take a pic every so often. Long as its not actively spying and the law can't touch them. LOL this is so stupid.
Taking a pic of a child without cloths is child porn no matter active or not. Even the chance of a child without cloths on in a pic should make this illegal.
The only way this argument should work is with stationary cams around the school and not in bathrooms. Laptops can be taking into bathrooms or where ever so no argument really will work.
2 words: "damage control" Of course there attorneys would want them to appear stupid instead of criminal. Duh!
I'm not so sure that the lawyers for the school will prevail in this case.
That school needs to be corrected and it's personnel need to be prosecuted so that this crap doesn't happen again. If they aren't it WILL happen again.
The lawyers did what they were paid to do by their client.
Yeah right and DC doesn't have a bunch of Communists in charge right now either.
Can you post in any of these threads without regurgitating your political views? Someone might actually take you seriously then.
Matsko...that's Polish isn't it?
lol... and thats why game stop legally owned 7,500 souls as an april fools joke. people just don't read the fine print
gamestation.co.uk, not game stop
"According to a report conducted by attorneys hired by Lower Merion School District, the school staff did not spy on students."
Well if the school's lawyers say its true then that's that.
Honest Officer, I wasn't speeding - I just had crappy speed observation. ... is this a joke? Since when was ignorance a defense?
So the IT department knew the computer was rented to the student and not stolen which means they should never have turn on the spyware device. The school district lawyers and getting big bucks to remove their heads from their arsess.