Re: big brother at school

["Tomas L. Byrnes" <tomb () byrneit net>]

> "
> A Pennsylvania school district says it remotely activated webcams 42
> times
> to find missing student laptops, but never did so to spy on students,
> as a
> lawsuit claims.
>
> Lower Merion School District spokesman Doug Young says the district
> recovered 28 of those laptops over 14 months. The others remain
> missing.
> The district has about 2,300 student laptops.
> ...
> Young tells The Associated Press that only two technology department
> employees were authorized to activate the cameras - and only to locate
> missing laptops.
> ...

[Tomas L. Byrnes] IANAL, but I have had responsibility for government
networks, and the guidance I always had to follow said that any "search"
or "surveillance" by or on behalf of a government agency had to be by a
LEO, and pursuant to a duly issued warrant, or was illegal.

So, if "only two employees' were capable of activating the cams, based
on what I was bound by (admittedly, federal and in the military), they
had better have been sworn officers, and had a warrant, or it's a
violation of the federal wiretap/surveillance statutes.

It would be different if they were a private agency tracking their
private property. Government agencies are subject to a much higher
requirement before starting surveillance, and for custody of any data
gathered thereby.

By my reading, this is a federal criminal case in the making.

Once again, IANAL. These are merely my opinions. I speak only for
myself. Etc. Etc.




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