Whiskey Tango Foxtrot & School Issued Laptops

Krom · Post by **Krom** » Thu Feb 18, 2010 3:56 pm

http://americasright.com/?p=3159

If these allegations turn out to be true... I'm speechless.

snoopy · Post by **snoopy** » Thu Feb 18, 2010 4:44 pm

My Alma matter competes with them in sporting events... they're just down the road from me now. That's kinda scary. I wonder what they nailed the kid for.

Ferno · Post by **Ferno** » Thu Feb 18, 2010 5:00 pm

what they nailed the kid for is irrelevant.

the fact that they actually did this without knowledge or permission of the student should raise a lot of questions, mainly regarding the schools' ethics.

dissent · Post by **dissent** » Thu Feb 18, 2010 8:06 pm

yeah, this is messed up. Sue 'em.

Spidey · Post by **Spidey** » Thu Feb 18, 2010 11:52 pm

I think my DVR is watching me.

Insurrectionist · Post by **Insurrectionist** » Fri Feb 19, 2010 5:28 am

Upon a report of a suspected lost, stolen or missing laptop, the feature was activated by the District’s security and technology departments. The tracking-security feature was limited to taking a still image of the operator and the operator’s screen. This feature has only been used for the limited purpose of locating a lost, stolen or missing laptop. The District has not used the tracking feature or web cam for any other purpose or in any other manner whatsoever.

Above quote from form letter sent out to parents. If any of this is true If I had..... Never Mind....

I can see were tracking software can come in handy if unlimited so you can track it when it's hooked up to the internet.

Did the student report it stolen. they clearly say in the form letter.

The District has not used the tracking feature or web cam for any other purpose or in any other manner whatsoever.

I bet just covering the booty with that statement.

http://americasright.com/?p=3208

SilverFJ · Post by **SilverFJ** » Fri Feb 19, 2010 11:56 am

People need to start understanding if they don't start to pay for their crimes they're going to start dying for them.

Ferno · Post by **Ferno** » Fri Feb 19, 2010 2:53 pm

Upon a report of a suspected lost, stolen or missing laptop, the feature was activated by the District’s security and technology departments. The tracking-security feature was limited to taking a still image of the operator and the operator’s screen. This feature has only been used for the limited purpose of locating a lost, stolen or missing laptop. The District has not used the tracking feature or web cam for any other purpose or in any other manner whatsoever.

...informed minor Plaintiff that the School District was of the belief that minor Plaintiff was engaged in improper behavior in his home, and cited as evidence a photograph from the webcam embedded in minor Plaintiff’s personal laptop...

so, what... they think the kid stole his own laptop?

please.

AlphaDoG · Post by **AlphaDoG** » Fri Feb 19, 2010 4:20 pm

Simple fix. Do NOT allow your child to accept school property for ANY reason.

snoopy · Post by **snoopy** » Fri Feb 19, 2010 5:19 pm

Ferno wrote:what they nailed the kid for is irrelevant.

the fact that they actually did this without knowledge or permission of the student should raise a lot of questions, mainly regarding the schools' ethics.

I agree that what the kid was doing is irrelevant to the problem of the school violating his rights and privacy. At the same time, I'm curious, because it had to have been something that they suspected (knew) was ongoing, and they just managed to catch him by those means... I'm assuming that the school had motive to spy on him, and I'm curious what it was.

Insurrectionist · Post by **Insurrectionist** » Sun Feb 21, 2010 7:01 am

The FBI is now investigating to see if the school violated any wiretapping or computer-intrusion laws.

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ap/ ... 76531.html

At least they got back 28 of 42 missing laptops.

Spidey · Post by **Spidey** » Sun Feb 21, 2010 12:03 pm

Aren’t there other ways to locate a computers physical location when logged on the the internet.

IP’s that can be tracked to the address of the users? I guess WiFi could be a problem.

I really can’t see that as a defense in this case.

Krom · Post by **Krom** » Sun Feb 21, 2010 1:37 pm

Well, you can usually track an IP down to a city, but they lack any greater location resolution than that since your IP address is randomly assigned from a pool, your ISP can keep track of who has what IP but the rest is just the billing address they get from you.

If you just started poking at IP addresses looking for one of these laptops you wouldn't get anywhere since there are over 4 billion (2^32) IPv4 addresses out there to look at. Also the vast majority of the time these laptops will be behind a router which would block that type of detection anyway. In order for their system to work all of these laptops have to \"phone home\" either at regular intervals / startup or otherwise notify the school of their presence. The laptop contacting the school is also the most reliable way to get through routers (only corporate style firewalls could successfully stop them).

So you can tell that because the laptops have this functionality that they are regularly contacting the school servers which means that the school can very easily track what the computers are up to in potentially enormous detail.

Then you can think about the potential that this system could be hijacked or intercepted, there is no guarantee that the school server(s) are perfectly secure...

Spidey · Post by **Spidey** » Sun Feb 21, 2010 3:06 pm

Good enuf…but it still doesn’t justify spying on people.

Xamindar · Post by **Xamindar** » Sun Feb 21, 2010 4:03 pm

Apparently he was popping candy and they thought it was drugs.

Lothar · Post by **Lothar** » Mon Feb 22, 2010 3:48 pm

Ferno wrote:so, what... they think the kid stole his own laptop?

One possibility:

the kid may have reported his laptop stolen in an attempt to avoid having to return it. They triggered the software, found the kid still had it, and thought his lying about the theft warranted a suspension.

Of course, that's just speculation -- same as pretty much everything else people have said about this case.

Kilarin · Post by **Kilarin** » Mon Feb 22, 2010 4:01 pm

Lothar wrote:Of course, that's just speculation -- same as pretty much everything else people have said about this case.

Yep, way too much information missing in this case when the stories seem contradictory. It certainly SOUNDS like the school was just snooping, but something seems... wrong... here. We need more data.

Lothar · Post by **Lothar** » Mon Feb 22, 2010 5:05 pm

More info:
http://strydehax.blogspot.com/2010/02/s ... -high.html

Kilarin · Post by **Kilarin** » Mon Feb 22, 2010 10:48 pm

Thanks for the link Lothar.

It sure is looking like the school was really using the laptops to spy on the kids. Very Big Brother. Yikes!

I do take objection to one statement:

Disabling the camera was impossible

Anyone remember a B movie called \"D.A.R.Y.L.\" ? The kid/robot disables a very expensive security camera by sticking a piece of bubble gum over the lens. Never count out low tech methods of bypassing security, such as duct-tape, mud, or little heart stickers.

Ferno · Post by **Ferno** » Mon Feb 22, 2010 10:52 pm

impossible? LOL

won't take long for a kid to figure out how to disable it.

snoopy · Post by **snoopy** » Tue Feb 23, 2010 3:03 pm

Ferno wrote:impossible? LOL

won't take long for a kid to figure out how to disable it.

The site Lothar linked said that jailbreaking the laptops was punishable by expulsion... apparently it happened early in the program & they established the policy.

If the legal end of it fizzles out, I'm sure there will be lots of hackers looking to wreck havoc on the crappy security scheme.

Spidey · Post by **Spidey** » Tue Feb 23, 2010 4:20 pm

Couple things…

I hope the manufacturers try and keep up with how their products are being used, and give more control to the users of these units to protect their privacy…a small sliding door over the lens, for example,

And congress needs to be on top of these things as well, but of course every time anybody attempts to legislate the internet…people scream bloody murder.

I hope this gets more attention, and parents learn something useful…like teaching kids about protecting their rights and privacy.

snoopy · Post by **snoopy** » Sat Apr 17, 2010 9:02 pm

Bump....

I saw this on yahoo today:

link

Looks like it is getting some level of attention nation-wide.

woodchip · Post by **woodchip** » Sun Apr 18, 2010 6:30 am

The sheer number of photos they took is astounding, most of which had nothing to do with a stolen laptop. Sounds like there's a peeping tom in the schools electronic closet.

Edit add:
\"Ebby's comments came a day after a lawyer for Harriton sophomore Blake Robbins filed a motion in federal court asserting that the system had secretly captured \"thousands of images of webcam pictures and screen shots,\" including photos of students, the Web sites they visited and excerpts of their online chats.\"

http://www.philly.com/philly/news/break ... IFIED.html

Whiskey Tango Foxtrot & School Issued Laptops

Whiskey Tango Foxtrot & School Issued Laptops

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