27 replies to this topic

[MegaZero64]

I saw, thanks to MSN, that a school was watching their students while they were at home, with the school's borrowed laptop. Big Brother, anyone?

[NeppyNepNep]

I saw that a while ago. I was really disgusted. In fact it has made me paranoid >.> I took Ero's suggestion of putting blue tac on the webcam that is on my laptop so no one can activate it without my knowledge. If I remember correctly... They had some rather indecent images of other family members like them being naked or something. Made me sick to my stomach. They had no right doing that. What makes them think that they would get away with it? Heh... idiots >.>

[Serlina]

. . . . ok now I'm paranoid . . . *looks to college laptop she's been given* . . . *looks at own laptop with built in web cam* . . . well shitz Toto we're in Big Brother! =O thank christ I don't use the college laptop and its always in its case . . . my personal one on the other hand . . . *puts blu tack on the web cam* there we go.

Anyway yeah this is really sick . . . I mean what if, probably was, but what if the one who did it and looked at the images was a pedophile? They've basically had the ability to watch the kids or whatever changing or god knows what . . . its disgusting! And an invasion of the families rights, Big Brother can piss off ¬__¬ I'm fed up of it and of being closely monitored 24 hrs a day.

[MegaZero64]

Yeah, good advice from Si. I keep mine shut, usually, so I don't have to worry about people watching me. Really though, if they want to watch me, it's pretty sad. :/

[Malevolent]

There's a lot of this - there are also viruses out there that are designed to hack into the webcam without it actually showing it's on, and they post it on websites and such. That's what I've been told, anyways >.> Hence why mine normally points down or at a wall, and I get incredeibly paranoid if it happens to be pointing at me.

[MegaZero64]

Malevolent, on 21 April 2010 - 14:42 hrs, said:

There's a lot of this - there are also viruses out there that are designed to hack into the webcam without it actually showing it's on, and they post it on websites and such. That's what I've been told, anyways >.> Hence why mine normally points down or at a wall, and I get incredeibly paranoid if it happens to be pointing at me.

Yeah, I'm so very glad my webcam is integrated. XD

[Kaelos]

However in this case, the only reason the school was able to do this was because they had "remote access" to the laptops through a remote access problem.. which would allow them to do pretty much anything to the laptops. Abusing the power to watch over the students and make sure they are working by activating webcams is pretty stupid and low.

[Malevolent]

Definately. Did the school have any consequences for this? If I were one of the students, I'd be pretty outraged.

[NeppyNepNep]

They were sued I think >.> To fucking right. I know that they are a school, but that was not right. There is no privacy in this world any more... In England all your movements are monitored by CCTV... apparently for crime and evident purposes... but only 14% of the footage of crimes caught on camera can by used as evidence as the rest is to blurry to be used >.>

[Malevolent]

Even being a school, are you really going to be -that- strict to make sure students do their work? It's not like you can watch them with the cameras and the second they stop for whatever reason, call their house and say "Get back to work!" Unless that's what they actually did..

I only know of businesses having cameras in Canada, so far. At least in the towns I've lived in - I don't know much about how the bigger cities are running it, now.

How did they find out about the cameras?

[NeppyNepNep]

I'm not actually sure. It has been a while since I read it >< So I can only speculate on that, but someone would have had to reported them in for it.

And there are other ways for them to make sure that the kids are working. Looking at them through the webcam is not a reliable idea because for all you know they're looking at porn and not working.

And oh... look what I found: http://gizmodo.com/5...ecurity-feature

Surprise surprise. He is covering his arse by saying it's a security feature. So... tell me, if it only activates when it is reported as stolen, then why was it taking pictures of the student and their families?

Yeah... Anyone else call bullshit?

Anyway, if someone stole a laptop with the intent of personal use or to sell it on, they would wipe the hard-drive of all it's data... so... that's the security feature out of the window. And anyone with a lick on intelligence would cover the webcam if they were in illegal possession of the said laptop as, well, it can be activated remotely by other people who can see what they are doing.

Yeah, no... If I was a parents I would be highly insulted by this email. It has bull shit all over it. Anyone else call BS on this? ¬.¬ ~raises my hand~

[Malevolent]

"Privacy is a basic right in our society and a matter we take very seriously. We believe that a good job can always be done better."

That whole letter made me want to slam my face into a brick wall u_u. I think you said it all pretty well, Neptune. ^.^

Definite BS. *raises hand*

[MegaZero64]

*raises hand* Aye, agreed.

[SMFoxy]

I agree... This whole thing is BS, right from the start...
What the hell kind of school would do that...?
Come on... Giving away laptops with webcams...? How stupid... *rolls my eyes* xP

Ok, that was a joke... But seriouly... Who does that...?
If any one of the parents chose to take them to court, the school is totally fucked...

[Malevolent]

I would - I doubt they signed up for that. Honestly, who would? At least give some sort of warning.

[MegaZero64]

Well, the FBI is looking into it, last I checked. Seems they didn't buy the "Security Feature" shit.

[Malevolent]

Well jeez, I wonder why that didn't fool the FBI >.>
-facepalm- Idiots.

[SMFoxy]

Agreed... *rolls eyes*
Morons...

[NeppyNepNep]

Hey, they thought they were smart enough to get away with it, so they thought they were smart enough to get away with it by their extremely see-through excuse.

Thing is, anyone with an ounce of Intelligence would be able to tell you how damn stupid that 'security feature' was. I mean, making sure that they were doing their work by looking through the webcam? I mean, come on! Seriously. Someone could be watching me through the webcam [Not that they can... thanks blue tac! xD] to make sure I was going work... but I could be writing pervy things on this site for all they knew. It's to inaccurate and even a moron could stop them from seeing what they were going.

[Malevolent]

Exactly. This whole thing is just so horribly stupid.. it makes me wonder what they were -actually- after.