CNN (10/13, Bonus) reports that Pennsylvania's Lower Merion School District on Monday settled "several lawsuits involving privacy concerns in a laptop computer distribution program." In two of the cases, "students who were given laptop computers through the district" found out later that school administrators were able to "take photographs and screenshots by remotely accessing the webcam on the laptop." A spokesman for the Lower Merion School District said that "a substantial number of webcam photographs were recovered," but noted that "the district would only remotely access a laptop if it was reported to be lost, stolen or missing." In the settlement, one student was awarded $175,000, another student was given $10,000, and their attorney got $425,000. USA Today (10/12, Stanglin) and WAPI-FM Birmingham, Alabama (10/13) also covered the story.
Computerworld (10/13, Vijayan) reports that "the district provided laptops to about 1,800 of its high school students, but did not inform them about the embedded tracking software, which could be used to remotely activate Webcams on the laptops." After a student "filed a lawsuit against the school district accusing it of spying on him in his home," investigators "found that school-issued laptops had taken more than 30,000 photographs, using the activated tracking software." The FBI conducted its own investigation into the matter, after which the US Department of Justice "said it would not file criminal charges against the school district because there was no evidence of criminal intent in its actions."
PC Magazine (10/12, Albanesius) reported that after the investigations, "the school district...apologized and admitted that it should have informed students and parents about the software. An updated school policy now requires the district to get a student's permission before activating the monitoring software."
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