By Stephen Kopko
Impunity Watch Reporter, North America
PENNSYLVANIA, United States – This week a student and his parents filed a lawsuit against a school district in the suburbs of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The student claims that employees of the Lower Merion School District spied on him at his home through a school-issued laptop computer. The student attends Harriton High School which is part of the Lower Merion School District.
The lawsuit stems from the school district’s policy of issuing each one of its students a laptop computer. All two thousand three hundred students in the school district receive laptops to conduct school work. Cameras and microphone systems are some of the features the laptops offer. The devices can be turned on through remote-activation software by people other than the user. The software can then relate information from the computer to outside parties.
The student claims that the software was used improperly by the school district. In November of 2009, he was accused of using his school-issued computer improperly by a school administrator. The administrator told him that he had an improper photograph on his computer. The school district did not inform students or their parents that they could activate the camera or recording device while the computer was at a student’s home.
In defense, the school district stated that it only used remote activation to locate missing laptops. The school district admitted to activating forty-two students’ cameras over a fourteen month period for that purpose. Subsequently, the school district has suspended its ability to remotely activate the laptops.
Privacy advocates, students, and parents were disturbed by the school district’s policy. They were fearful of placing such a powerful tool in the hands of school administrators. Parents and students argued that school officials had the ability to watch and find students and parents in potentially embarrassing situations.
The United States Supreme Court has previously held that privacy in ones home is a protected right. Therefore, the government needs to have reasonable suspicion or probable cause in order to search a person’s home. Justice Scalia wrote in a 2001 opinion that the Supreme Court has traditionally found that a government’s intrusion into a person’s privacy “draws a firm line at the entrance to the house.” In that case, the Supreme Court found that a police department’s use of infrared technology to detect marijuana within a person’s home was unconstitutional.
The FBI and the local district attorney also have started investigations against the school district. Both law enforcement agencies will investigate whether the school district broke any wiretap or computer intrusion laws.
For more information, please see:
Washington Post – Official: FBI probing Pa. school webcam spy case – 19 February 2010
MSNBC – Suit: School spied on student via webcams – 18 February 2010
Philadelphia Daily News – Lower Merion School District sued for cyber spying on students – 18 February 2010
