Feb 18, 2010

Big Brother actually is watching them

In a move worthy of William Gibson's nightmares, the Lower Merion School District (a Philly, PA suburb) is being sued. Why? Because they issued a bunch of laptops to students and didn't tell them that the computers came equipped with webcams that could be covertly activated by the schools' administrators to record what was going on in front of said webcam without the students or parents having the slightest idea. This came to light when they decided to punish a student for "improper behavior in his home", behavior captured by the secret spying.

Makes you wonder who all is watching you sleep, don't it?

2 comments:

OlmanFeelyus said...

Wow. I can almost see some arguments for having a camera in computers on school property, like in the library or during study hall or in a classroom. But at the students home? It also blows me away that the students were too stupid not too realize this. Clearly, they don't have a good comp. sci. program at that school.

That Hank said...

I dunno,, I would probably just think I was being paranoid if it occurred to me that my school, when I was in school, was spying on me like that.