Harriton High School has 2,800 students
In deeply disturbing news, indicative of the type of invasive spying the Judiciary Report has alleged previously, as something happening in America, violating citizens privacy, a high school in Pennsylvania has come under fire, for spying on teenage students in their homes, via embedded webcams in laptops the school issued.
Students were unaware, the built-in webcam on their laptops, were secretly being triggered by school staff at Harriton High School, in effect, acting as hidden cameras, watching people in their homes, which is really sick, depraved and illegal.
A family has sued on behalf of their 15-year-old son, Blake Robbins, who received one of the school issued laptops, only to be arrogantly confronted later by an assistant principal, Lynn Matsko, who told him the things he does in his home are unethical. They need to lock that assistant principal up for the next 20-years and ditto for anyone else that engaged in this criminal misconduct.The assistant principal haughtily told the child's father, "The district 'could remotely activate the webcam contained in a student's personal laptop . . . at any time it chose and to view and capture whatever images were in front of the webcam' without the knowledge or approval of the laptop's users, the suit says."
This 15-year-old child was in his bedroom unaware of the illegal spying, changing his clothes day after day, in getting ready for school, while people on the faculty of said school, were watching him and other students in their homes, who received the laptops. It could be classified as child pornography.
That is inexcusable, as it is completely sick and depraved beyond words. All involved deserve to go to prison. You have violated privacy and voyeur laws, which coincidentally are sorely ineffective, while engaging in computer intrusion.
I hope you realize those kids are going to need therapy after being violated in this sick manner. It's bad enough when it happens to an adult, but even worse when it transpires against teens.
15-year-old Blake Robbins
The Judiciary Report has been warning for the past few years that the U.S. Congress needs to do something about the nastiness going on, in people illegally spying on others in their homes, using hidden cameras.
Hollywood put this nastiness on the map. Hollywood Cults such as Kabbalah and Scientology have been engaging in such illegal hidden camera spying for years.
It is the sickest thing I have ever come across and found out about it, due to Madonna's completely vile conduct. The FBI was informed of it in 2005, but looked the other way to the sick, invasive crimes, to facilitate criminal copyright theft. For example, Madonna's Kabbalah cult maintains a sick, private password protected website, where depraved members of the cult, such as herself, Guy Ritchie, Britney Spears, Lindsay Lohan, Paris Hilton, Rihanna, Jay-Z, Beyonce, Simon Cowell and Simon Fuller, to name a few, view hidden camera feeds, coming from hidden cameras the cult have criminally placed in selected people's homes without their knowledge or consent.
But thanks to the criminal negligence of the FBI/DOJ and U.S. Congress, people now feel it is safe to commit said abomination, to the point children are being preyed on by their own school. This is what happens when you look the other way to serious crimes - other people begin to think they can try it as well. Your negligence and complicity is interpreted as approval.
The Judiciary Report kept warning that the U.S. government needed new legislation to nip this type of hidden camera spying in the bud, but as per usual, criminal negligence is the order of the day.
Once again, as the Judiciary Report asked last week, what kind of sick direction is society going in that such invasive spying is occurring. It is absolutely perverted and disgusting.
These sick voyeurs need to be made examples of, to discourage said conduct, via creating such serious legal penalties, such as 20-years in prison and massive fines, it will discourage others from engaging in similar misconduct.
What is it going to take, to make Congress wake up and put a stop to the nasty spying on people in their homes - for it to happen to them and one of their own.
FBI Director Robert S. Mueller
For a few months now, the Judiciary Report has written of the fact, foreign politicians, diplomats and dignitaries are concerned about coming to America, due to the illegal spying coming out of the FBI and Hollywood, which they do not wish to fall victim to in any measure.
They are concerned about illegal wiretapping on phone lines, cell phone cloning, GPS tracking and worst of all, hidden cameras in hotel rooms and leased properties. Such invasiveness out not to be, as it deprives people of their privacy and dignity, in violation of international human rights laws.
However, once again, the U.S. Congress has failed in this endeavor, by allowing the FBI too much leeway, in which crimes they decide to prosecute and now people feel they can illegally spy on others in their homes without serious consequences. The FBI has tried to play down this problem, but it is a very real issue causing massive damage.
But then again, the FBI isn't much better, as they've surreptitiously used hidden cameras in people's homes without their knowledge, while placing individuals under surveillance. They were reprimanded in a similar case, as a minor was present in a property they used this terrible type of hidden camera surveillance in.
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Student claims school spied on him via computer webcam
Posted on Fri, Feb. 19, 2010 - A Lower Merion family has set off a furor among students, parents, and civil liberties groups by alleging that Harriton High School officials used a webcam on a school-issued laptop to spy on their 15-year-old son at home.
In a lawsuit filed Tuesday in federal court, the family said the school's assistant principal had confronted their son, told him he had "engaged in improper behavior in [his] home, and cited as evidence a photograph from the webcam embedded in [his] personal laptop issued by the school district."
The suit contends the Lower Merion School District, one of the most prosperous and highest-achieving in the state, had the ability to turn on students' webcams and illegally invade their privacy.
While declining to comment on the specifics of the suit, spokesman Douglas Young said the district was investigating. "We're taking it very seriously," he said last night.
The district's Apple MacBook laptops have a built-in webcam with a "security feature" that can snap a picture of the operator and the screen if the computer is reported lost or stolen, Young said.
But he said "the district would never utilize that security feature for any other reason." The district said that the security system was "deactivated" yesterday, and that it would review when the system had been used.
Widener University law professor Stephen Henderson said using a laptop camera for home surveillance would violate wiretap laws, even if done to catch a thief.
A statement on the district Web site said the lawsuit's allegations "are counter to everything that we stand for as a school and a community."
The suit says that in November, assistant principal Lynn Matsko called in sophomore Blake Robbins and told him that he had "engaged in improper behavior in his home," and cited as evidence a photograph from the webcam in his school-issued laptop.
Matsko later told Robbins' father, Michael, that the district "could remotely activate the webcam contained in a student's personal laptop . . . at any time it chose and to view and capture whatever images were in front of the webcam" without the knowledge or approval of the laptop's users, the suit says.
It does not say what improper activity Robbins was accused of or what, if any, discipline resulted. Reached at home yesterday, his mother, Holly, said she could not comment on advice of the family's lawyers...
Families in the 6,900-student district reacted with shock. Parent Candace Chacona said she was "flabbergasted" by the allegations.
"My first thought was that my daughter has her computer open almost around the clock in her bedroom. Has she been spied on?"
Victoria Zuzelo, a senior at Harriton, said she and other students had been told about the security feature, and knew the district had the right to search computer hard drives at school.
Some students had taken to covering webcams in school with paper because they thought they might be watched, she said. "But . . . they would never think the school would be watching them at home. I'm not sure who to believe, but I'm hoping it is not true because if it was, it would really be outrageous."
Lillie Coney, associate director of the Electronic Privacy Information Center, a privacy watchdog group in Washington, said she had not heard of any other case in which school officials were accused of monitoring student behavior at home via a computer. If the allegations are true, she said, "this is an outrageous invasion of individual privacy."
Witold J. Walczak, legal director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Pennsylvania, told the Associated Press: "School officials cannot, any more than police, enter into the home either electronically or physically without an invitation or a warrant." ...
Remotely accessing a laptop is fairly easy
Posted on Fri, Feb. 19, 2010 - In an age when built-in laptop cameras, no larger than a fingernail, have become commonplace, using them for clandestine surveillance can be a matter of simplicity itself.
Doing so requires one technical tweak to the machine before it is turned over to its user.
First, the computer's administrator would have to enable the laptop to respond to remote access. Once the laptop is connected to the Internet, the administrator could sign on to it without the user knowing.
Then the administrator, over the Internet, could turn on the laptop's camera and microphone as easily as if the machine were in the same room, and record the data - digital audio and video, for example - to the administrator's machine.
"I could take over without the user's knowledge and just activate the webcam," said Jim Martin, who is based in Houston and teaches computer forensics to law enforcement and private industries...
