Would you trade the privacy of your own home or bedroom for the use of a free laptop? We all know that one of the drawbacks of living in today's technology rich society is our loss of privacy. We knowingly trade a portion of our private life to Google, News Corporation, Microsoft and the like for a brave new world of media rich content. The trade that the Lower Merion School District made with its students had a hidden clause. The students each received a laptop for home use, a shiny new Mac with a webcam. The problem was that the school district had an undisclosed policy of locating stolen or missing laptops by secretly activating the computer's webcam. If you brought the laptop into your bedroom, bathroom, wherever - sorry! School officials admit that the paperwork parents and students signed did not disclose this bonus feature included in every laptop they gave to students. The school district also claims that they never "spied" on students. They go on to state that they activated the cameras 42 times in the past 14 months in order to recover 28 missing laptops. "Activated" a camera in a teen's home somehow differs from spying. It turns out that this became news when the school officials called in a student and confronted the student with pictures of him in his bedroom allegedly doing drugs. He claims they were his favorite candy "Mike and Ikes". There is some very good balanced coverage of this case form the tech site arstechnia. You can also see how mainstream media covers the topic.
Wow. I've heard about schools giving away free laptops and such, but I've never even thought of the possibilities of schools using them to intrude on the privacy of students.
ReplyDeleteWow, that's completely ridiculous. I can't believe they violated the privacy of those students. I understand the idea of laptops being a security issue, but that is taking it a step too far. I know some people who attend Lower Merion...I wonder if they've heard about this.
ReplyDeleteWhy did the web cam thing have to be a secret? They were certainly asking for trouble.
ReplyDeleteIF each student with a laptop knew about the web cam thing, told it was for their safety, and was also held responsible for their own laptop, ie: not disabling the web cam, they would assume accountability and responsibility.
This is Izzy, by the way.
ReplyDeleteEven though I find the whole idea of installing webcams on the laptops a major violation of privacy, common sense dictates that you don't just get a laptop for FREE without some catch. The catch in this case, was hidden, but that is the risk you take with these kinds of experiments.
In the end, you have to chose between accepting the laptop and anything that comes with it, or deciding to do without. I, personally, would do without. My privacy is worth far more than anything you could give me for free.