4 ms·

Students in Laptop Spying case get to view 58k photos

25 points by J3L2404 16y ago

plesn 16y ago
I wonder if the LED of the webcam was on when they where spyed (and more generally if you can disable those by software).
- jason_slack 16y ago
  I read several times that the light on the camera would come on periodically and they were told it was bug in the software...They were MacBooks.
  - ugh 16y ago
    As far as I know the camera LED in MacBooks is hardwired to the camera. You can’t turn it off in software. If the camera gets power the LED gets power (as it should be).
    - jason_slack 16y ago
      right, but students were told it is a bug.. I dont know for sure, but probably by that sys admin lady whos job it was to administer the laptops. I dunno about you, but I just find this whole thing way to bizarre. How it was found out, the magnitude, the fact that it seems one person has done all of this.
      - olefoo 16y ago
        > the fact that it seems one person has done all of this. Uh, where did you get that? The spying software was installed as a matter of school policy; it wasn't the act of a rogue admin deciding to wire up the school laptops to feed their appetites. They had budget meetings where they took notes about how much it would cost to purchase a site license that would cover the installation of this software on all of the school computers; everyone up to the school board participated in and signed off on this. It was not a secret.
        carussell 16y ago
        It's possible jason_slack meant the whole thing was revealed due to one student, Blake Robbins: http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/2010/02/school-under-fire-for-spying-on-kid-via-webcam-at-home.ars http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/2010/02/school-under...
- pook 16y ago
  The LED would flash green momentarily. Students who reported it to the school were told it was a harmless bug, iirc.
bryanh 16y ago
This may prevent wider embarrassment from, ahem, moments of pubescent weakness...
- J3L2404 16y ago
  Indeed, and probably why the viewings will be students sans parents.
  - michaelcampbell 16y ago
    From TFA: > The students will be able to view the images with or without their parents, and request that the court block their parents from seeing "sensitive" photos if they so choose.
elblanco 16y ago
So can they see all of the photos, or only theirs?
djb_hackernews 16y ago
I'll be amused that after some more investigation a pattern is found in the files (name, date modified, etc) and it appears chunks of the pattern are missing.
- ShabbyDoo 16y ago
  The patterns of who and when will also be notable. Were cheerleaders more likely to have been watched?
verisimilitude 16y ago
What has struck me as most odd about this story is that I haven't heard any national news organizations really pick this up and run with it. Why? Is this story too hard to wedge into sound bytes? The dearth of coverage bothers me.

25 points by J3L2404 16y ago

plesn 16y ago

I wonder if the LED of the webcam was on when they where spyed (and more generally if you can disable those by software).

jason_slack 16y ago
I read several times that the light on the camera would come on periodically and they were told it was bug in the software...They were MacBooks.
- ugh 16y ago
  As far as I know the camera LED in MacBooks is hardwired to the camera. You can’t turn it off in software. If the camera gets power the LED gets power (as it should be).
  - jason_slack 16y ago
    right, but students were told it is a bug.. I dont know for sure, but probably by that sys admin lady whos job it was to administer the laptops. I dunno about you, but I just find this whole thing way to bizarre. How it was found out, the magnitude, the fact that it seems one person has done all of this.
    - olefoo 16y ago
      > the fact that it seems one person has done all of this. Uh, where did you get that? The spying software was installed as a matter of school policy; it wasn't the act of a rogue admin deciding to wire up the school laptops to feed their appetites. They had budget meetings where they took notes about how much it would cost to purchase a site license that would cover the installation of this software on all of the school computers; everyone up to the school board participated in and signed off on this. It was not a secret.
      - carussell 16y ago
        It's possible jason_slack meant the whole thing was revealed due to one student, Blake Robbins: http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/2010/02/school-under-fire-for-spying-on-kid-via-webcam-at-home.ars http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/2010/02/school-under...
pook 16y ago
The LED would flash green momentarily. Students who reported it to the school were told it was a harmless bug, iirc.

bryanh 16y ago

This may prevent wider embarrassment from, ahem, moments of pubescent weakness...

J3L2404 16y ago
Indeed, and probably why the viewings will be students sans parents.
- michaelcampbell 16y ago
  From TFA: > The students will be able to view the images with or without their parents, and request that the court block their parents from seeing "sensitive" photos if they so choose.

elblanco 16y ago

So can they see all of the photos, or only theirs?

djb_hackernews 16y ago

I'll be amused that after some more investigation a pattern is found in the files (name, date modified, etc) and it appears chunks of the pattern are missing.

ShabbyDoo 16y ago
The patterns of who and when will also be notable. Were cheerleaders more likely to have been watched?

verisimilitude 16y ago

What has struck me as most odd about this story is that I haven't heard any national news organizations really pick this up and run with it. Why? Is this story too hard to wedge into sound bytes? The dearth of coverage bothers me.