**UPDATE** on the Lower Merion high school laptop spycam case: 56,000 photos taken

[Papa Boule]

Lower Merion School District employees activated the web cameras and tracking software on laptops they gave to high school students about 80 times in the past two school years, snapping nearly 56,000 images that included photos of students, pictures inside their homes and copies of the programs or files running on their screens, district investigators have concluded.

(snip)

The district's attorney, Henry Hockeimer, declined to describe in detail any of the recovered Web cam photos, or identify the people in them or their surroundings. He said none appeared to show "salacious or inappropriate" images but said that in no way justified the use of the program.

"The taking of these pictures without student consent in their homes was obviously wrong," Hockeimer said.

A federal magistrate judge is expected this week to begin the process of arranging for parents whose children were photographed to privately view the photos.

Hockeimer said the district's internal investigation is ongoing and that the numbers could change. He said the board authorized him to release the information in response to a new court motion filed last week by Harriton High School sophomore Blake Robbins, whose lawsuit contends the program invaded his privacy.

http://www.philly.com/philly/news/breaking/20100419_Lower_Merion_details_Web_cam_scope.html">Story here.

56,000 seems like plenty.

[BlooInBloo]

1. I predict lots of kiddie porn charges coming.

[RC]

2. You're not the only one.

[Oregone]

3. With what legal evidence?

[merh]

5. How is the evidence illegal?

[pnwmom]

6. If you take that many pictures of teens in their bedrooms, including in bed,

you're bound to see something.

And all the computer evidence was legally obtained by the police from the teens and their parents.

[Oregone]

8. OH, I see what you are saying

I thought they were talking about things they found the kids looking up.

[havocmom]

9. nah, the spying on the kids and taking pic OF the kids without permission

There are rules. ;)

[pnwmom]

7. delete

[Richard Steele]

4. K&R

[kestrel91316]

10. Waiting for a certain DUer to chime in, screeching about how

the school did NOTHING WRONG.

[TorchTheWitch]

11. more interesting bits...

"But in at least five instances, school employees let the Web cams keep clicking for days or weeks after students found their missing laptops, according to the review. Those computers - programmed to snap a photo and capture a screen shot every 15 minutes when the machine was on - fired nearly 13,000 images back to the school district servers."

"The system was designed to automatically purge all the images after the tracking was deactivated."

Well, that's interesting. If the images were automatically supposed to be purged why weren't they?


"The next biggest chunk of images stem from the five or so laptops where employees failed or forgot to turn off the tracking software even after the student recovered the computer."

Gee, they just "forgot" to turn the spycam off. Ugh.


"In a few other cases, Hockeimer said, the team has been unable to recover images or photos stored by the tracking system."

I'm guessing those would be the photos showing naked kids, or kids having sex or kids jerking off.... eeeeeeek.


"And in about 15 activations, investigators have been unable to identify exactly why a student's laptop was being monitored."

Bet I can guess why.


"The whole situation was riddled with the problem of not having any written policies and procedures in place," Hockeimer said. "And that impacted so much of what happened here."

Gee, Ya think?

[Shallah Kali]

12. said viewing the webcam pictures was like watching "a little LMSD soap opera." "I know, I love it!"

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5gdwlE3DpcMD9gNAnFMrQ7iNHCS6AD9F4DA500


"Thousands of webcam pictures and screen shots have been taken of numerous other students in their homes, many of which never reported their laptops lost or missing," Haltzman wrote in a motion filed Thursday.

According to Haltzman, technology coordinator Carol Cafiero refused to answer his questions at a recent deposition, citing her Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination. She and technician Michael Perbix were the only employees authorized to activate the webcams. Perbix did not fight the deposition.

Haltzman called Cafiero a possible "voyeur" and wants access to her personal computer to see if she downloaded any student images. To support the charge, he cited her response to an e-mail from a colleague who said viewing the webcam pictures was like watching "a little LMSD soap opera."

"I know, I love it!" Cafiero allegedly replied.

Her lawyer, Charles Mandracchia, did not immediately return a message Friday, but has said his client did nothing wrong. Cafiero makes $105,000 and Perbix $86,000. Both are on paid leave.

snip

Meanwhile, U.S. Sen. Arlen Specter, D-Pa., introduced a bill Thursday to treat video surveillance the same as electronic communication under the federal Wiretap Act.

"Citizens should not have to fear that cameras on their cell phones or computers — common features on many of today's personal electronic devices — will be used in their homes without their knowledge to invade their privacy rights," said Sen. Russ Feingold, D-Wis., a co-sponsor.

[Maat]

13. THANK YOU, Russ Feingold.

Of course, the NSA will still probably be free to do what it wants whenever it wants.

[pokerfan]

14. 80 times? Today it's 146.

What will it be tomorrow?

http://www.philly.com/philly/news/homepage/20100420_Lower_Merion_details_scope_of_Web-cam_surveillance.html

[BR_Parkway]

15. Wow, that's a huge jump from the original 40 images that were claimed

when the story started to come out.

And none of the pictures appear to be "salacious or inappropriate"? Taking a picture of me at that age with a laptop every 15 minutes would have gotten you tons of inappropriate images - and I don't think 15 yo boys have changed all that much over the years. 13,000 images from the 5 kids who's computers they "forgot" to turn off - an average 2,600 pictures per kid, at an average of 27 days at 96 pictures a day. And not once did they ever snap a picture of the kid getting dressed? Getting out of the shower? Viewing porn?

Yeah, right. There's still so much of this to come out - and hopefully people to jail