Students Have Been Spied by Their High School Using Webcams

Harriton High School in Lower Merion School District near Philadelphia is one of the first schools that provided their students with MacBook laptops not only to use them at school but also for their individual use at home. Sounds like a great idea to bring the studies closer to the advantages of new technologies. However, one student has recently reported that school spied on him via his Mac Webcam.

Blake Robins, a student from Lower Merion School District, said that he has been told by an assistant principal Lindy Matsko that the school knows of his improper behavior at his home and even has a webcam picture as evidence. The student says he was blamed for selling drugs.

The FBI started an investigation to find out if the school violated law by activating webcams in laptops of their students.

Both students and their parents have been shocked. This became the main topic at Harriton High School as the students became really worried whether someone could watch them while they were at home. Some of the students even compared it to being undressed. It’s quite natural that you usually keep your laptop in your room where you do everything: do your homework, watch TV, relax, get changed, sleep, etc. Besides, this can affect not only the student but his family as well. So there are more people who could be risking on their privacy while simply doing ordinary things at home.

The school explains that the security feature was only prepared to use in case if the laptop has been lost or stolen. Then it would be possible to locate computer and return it to the student. It also denies that the webcams were used to spy on students’ personal lives.

The students, however, say they are putting a tape on their webcams to make sure that this doesn’t happen again. And even though the school denies that they have been spying on children the fact that they can control the cameras remotely makes people worried. That is one more example how technologies can be used against people’s privacy

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