Spying costs

Remember the school district that engaged in surveillance using the district laptops to spy on students at home, previously posted here and here? The school board just approved a $610,000 settlement.

Spying on students

That Pennsylvania school district that allegedly used surveillance software to spy on students has escaped federal criminal charges it appears. Our previous follow-up is posted here.

Laptop surveillance

We previously posted about the school in Pennsylvania that surreptitiously activated laptop cameras to record activity while students were at home. While schools and employers arguably could impose a duty to consent to such monitoring in return for use of the school or company computer, the school had not amended its computer use policy to take that into account. Here's an extended post following up on the controversy. It gives more background about the controversy, including the cost of the software ($156,357) and the fact that the software company's new owner is discontinuing the video surveillance option.

FBI investigates school

The FBI is investigating whether school officials broke federal wiretap or computer-intrusion laws when they remotely accessed student's laptops and allegedly spied on student activities in their home.

They can do that?

It seems a public school has disciplined a student for conduct occurring in the student's home. The evidence of the improper conduct was a web cam picture taken on the school issued laptop. Ho Hum you say, No different than that compromising Facebook post? Hang on, this ain't dog bites man. More after the jump