Spies
“And they watched him, and sent forth spies, which should feign themselves just men, that they might take hold of his words, that so they might deliver him unto the power and authority of the governor.”
Luke 20:20
Big Brother Laptops sent home by schools 'spied on students'*
Investigators looking into a school district in Pennsylvania that lent out big brother laptops have discovered thousands of secret photographs were taken of students in their homes.
By Jacqui Goddard in Miami
Published: 4:03PM BST 17 Apr 2010
Gloating officials who spied on them said it was "like a soap opera", it is alleged.
The pictures were made possible by tracking software that was installed on laptops by the Lower Merion School District (LMSD) to allow them to locate the computers in the event of them being lost or stolen.
A lawsuit filed by the parents of one of the pupils, 15-year-old Blake Robbins of Harriton High School in Rosemont, claims that the tracking system captured more than 400 images via his school-issued laptop over the course of two weeks last autumn and that "thousands of webcam pictures and screen shots have been taken of numerous other students in their homes."…..
The school district has argued that it activated the secret camera in Blake's computer because his parents had not paid the necessary insurance fee that allowed him to take it home.
Federal investigators are examining whether the spy programme was illegal.
Senator Arlen Specter, of Pennsylvania, introduced legislation on Thursday to close what he says in a loophole in federal wiretap laws that allow for unauthorised monitoring.
"Many of us expect to be subject to certain kinds of video surveillance when we leave our homes and go out each day -- at the ATM, at traffic lights, or in stores, for example," he said.
"What we do not expect is to be under visual surveillance in our homes, in our bedrooms and, most especially, we do not expect it for our children in our homes."