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As a longtime armchair attorney who has closely read summaries of cases like this on Slashdot for well over the past decade (IANAL, BTW)...you could go the lawy

As a longtime armchair attorney who has closely read summaries of cases like this on Slashdot for well over the past decade (IANAL, BTW)...you could go the lawyer route but this basically amounts to your kid being a minor in school which means they don't have full legal rights, and the interpretation of 4A is likely up in the air here anyway. Constitutional rights don't necessarily apply at school or anywhere near school (see bongrips4jesus case), your kid is a minor anyway (another special case), and a school doing this for the sake of "preventing cheating" may not fall under the umbrella of unreasonable search. There was a PA school district back around 2009 that issued laptops to students preloaded with spyware that let school staff watch students through the webcam, while the students were at home and not doing schoolwork. Neither the students or parents were informed of this. IIRC the FBI got involved but nobody actually got in any real trouble, I'm not even sure they were fired. I wish things weren't this way. You could maybe use Wireshark and black hole anything the spyware tries to connect to at the router, or maybe add the addresses to the hosts file on the machine itself (not sure if ChromeOS lets you do this).

kaladin-jasnah 5y ago
Nit: I think it's "Bong Hits 4 Jesus."
- yeetsfromhellL2 5y ago
  Thank you, this one still makes me lose my damn mind.
salawat 5y ago
Actually.... It's the poster's Chromebook. They has revoked authorization for the school to deploy $software on their machine. Next step is the public school supplying a spyware'd laptop and NOT imstalling spyware on said parent's chromebook, but also said private chromebook not being used for school stuff. If you want the district to not install spyware... Well... Lets just say, the poster is probably pissing in the wind in my experience.
filesystem 5y ago
On the flip side of that "minors have no rights" coin you're holding up is the fact that laptop is the parent's property since they bought the laptop for the child to use. They did a factory reset and the problem software still remains. What if the parent did a factory reset to use the laptop for themselves? There is no reason for the spyware to remain in that case. It needs to be removable.
- detaro 5y ago
  They did a factory reset and reconnected the Chromebook to the school account, which configures the device according to the schools requirements. If they wanted to use it themselves, they would reset it, do not connect the school account and all is well. GPs argument seems to support that the school doesn't have to allow to use a school account without the device being put under the schools control. (at least as I understand it. if the MDM enrollment is actually tied to the device somehow, then they could reasonably demand it to be released if they planned to use it themselves)
  - MereInterest 5y ago
    That doesn't really make sense to me. User accounts, whether managed remotely or locally, should be subordinate to administrator accounts. That administrator-level privileges are insufficient to undo a change made with user-level privileges breaks this relationship.
    - detaro 5y ago
      OP didn't mention that the child's account is a secondary account. AFAIK if you log-in with an account the first time on a fresh(ly reset) chromebook, it becomes the "administrator" account - and at the same time if its in an organization (i.e. the school) the orgs policies are applied. No clue how that interacts if you do attempt to login such account as a second account, it's possible the org can require an account to be in control of the device. Chromebooks are deeply designed for exactly this centrally managed scenario after all, that's (partly) why they are so popular with schools and companies.
deathanatos 5y ago
> to your kid being a minor in school which means they don't have full legal rights, and the interpretation of 4A is likely up in the air here anyway IANAL, either. Just because the student is a minor, I don't see how that gives the school the right to pwn a private laptop (were the laptop a school laptop, my opinion would be different here); at best, this would seem to be the parent's machine, or right to decide, at that point. The OP's post isn't very clear on how the school managed to get into a private laptop in the first place; he mentions they "logged on", but onto what? And how does signing into something permit installs? (There's a comment below that hypothesizes this might be an MDM profile sort of situation, and that's … trickier. But doesn't even an MDM login have an uninstall of some sort? (Although, IDK, perhaps Chromebooks just can't do that, but that would seem to be an issue then with their software. But I've never tried, as I don't usually go for MDM stuff myself, as companies that do it typically want too much permission onto what is my personal device.))
- yeetsfromhellL2 5y ago
  pwning the laptop was a req for doing school work, like how you essentially give prior consent to a field sobriety test when you get a drivers license. I'm not saying it's right, but that likely the school district's argument in court, and I'm sure it's buried deep in a EULA or privacy policy somewhere.
  - 0des 5y ago
    > you essentially give prior consent to a field sobriety test when you get a drivers license If USA, this is false.
    - op00to 5y ago
      You are misinformed. In the USA, every state has a law stating licensed drivers give their implied consent to roadside DUI testing. Failure to comply will result in extra charges and almost certain conviction.
- dhzhzjsbevs 5y ago
bastardoperator 5y ago
The lawyer route makes no sense, it's all about small claims here. Sue for the cost of the chromebook, that will get someone's attention and you can likely settle it out of court or get the money to purchase a new one. The important part here is that the computer is not usable with their software and that you have no way to remove said software despite being the owner of the computer.
gentleman11 5y ago
Can’t you file criminal charges over this? It’s malware used to spy on minors without the parents knowledge or consent. Is the school also free to undress the kid and photograph them in person? If not, why if it’s remote?
mdmglr 5y ago
It's comical how your best advice is seek a lawyer. Any lawyer worth their salt would advise to contact the school directly to handle this matter. No need for a lawyer at this stage.
briandear 5y ago
But the school doesn’t own the machine, the parent does.

kaladin-jasnah 5y ago

Nit: I think it's "Bong Hits 4 Jesus."

yeetsfromhellL2 5y ago
Thank you, this one still makes me lose my damn mind.

salawat 5y ago

Actually.... It's the poster's Chromebook. They has revoked authorization for the school to deploy $software on their machine. Next step is the public school supplying a spyware'd laptop and NOT imstalling spyware on said parent's chromebook, but also said private chromebook not being used for school stuff. If you want the district to not install spyware... Well... Lets just say, the poster is probably pissing in the wind in my experience.

filesystem 5y ago

On the flip side of that "minors have no rights" coin you're holding up is the fact that laptop is the parent's property since they bought the laptop for the child to use. They did a factory reset and the problem software still remains. What if the parent did a factory reset to use the laptop for themselves? There is no reason for the spyware to remain in that case. It needs to be removable.

detaro 5y ago
They did a factory reset and reconnected the Chromebook to the school account, which configures the device according to the schools requirements. If they wanted to use it themselves, they would reset it, do not connect the school account and all is well. GPs argument seems to support that the school doesn't have to allow to use a school account without the device being put under the schools control. (at least as I understand it. if the MDM enrollment is actually tied to the device somehow, then they could reasonably demand it to be released if they planned to use it themselves)
- MereInterest 5y ago
  That doesn't really make sense to me. User accounts, whether managed remotely or locally, should be subordinate to administrator accounts. That administrator-level privileges are insufficient to undo a change made with user-level privileges breaks this relationship.
  - detaro 5y ago
    OP didn't mention that the child's account is a secondary account. AFAIK if you log-in with an account the first time on a fresh(ly reset) chromebook, it becomes the "administrator" account - and at the same time if its in an organization (i.e. the school) the orgs policies are applied. No clue how that interacts if you do attempt to login such account as a second account, it's possible the org can require an account to be in control of the device. Chromebooks are deeply designed for exactly this centrally managed scenario after all, that's (partly) why they are so popular with schools and companies.

deathanatos 5y ago

> to your kid being a minor in school which means they don't have full legal rights, and the interpretation of 4A is likely up in the air here anyway IANAL, either. Just because the student is a minor, I don't see how that gives the school the right to pwn a private laptop (were the laptop a school laptop, my opinion would be different here); at best, this would seem to be the parent's machine, or right to decide, at that point. The OP's post isn't very clear on how the school managed to get into a private laptop in the first place; he mentions they "logged on", but onto what? And how does signing into something permit installs? (There's a comment below that hypothesizes this might be an MDM profile sort of situation, and that's … trickier. But doesn't even an MDM login have an uninstall of some sort? (Although, IDK, perhaps Chromebooks just can't do that, but that would seem to be an issue then with their software. But I've never tried, as I don't usually go for MDM stuff myself, as companies that do it typically want too much permission onto what is my personal device.))

yeetsfromhellL2 5y ago
pwning the laptop was a req for doing school work, like how you essentially give prior consent to a field sobriety test when you get a drivers license. I'm not saying it's right, but that likely the school district's argument in court, and I'm sure it's buried deep in a EULA or privacy policy somewhere.
- 0des 5y ago
  > you essentially give prior consent to a field sobriety test when you get a drivers license If USA, this is false.
  - op00to 5y ago
    You are misinformed. In the USA, every state has a law stating licensed drivers give their implied consent to roadside DUI testing. Failure to comply will result in extra charges and almost certain conviction.
dhzhzjsbevs 5y ago

bastardoperator 5y ago

The lawyer route makes no sense, it's all about small claims here. Sue for the cost of the chromebook, that will get someone's attention and you can likely settle it out of court or get the money to purchase a new one. The important part here is that the computer is not usable with their software and that you have no way to remove said software despite being the owner of the computer.

gentleman11 5y ago

Can’t you file criminal charges over this? It’s malware used to spy on minors without the parents knowledge or consent. Is the school also free to undress the kid and photograph them in person? If not, why if it’s remote?

mdmglr 5y ago

It's comical how your best advice is seek a lawyer. Any lawyer worth their salt would advise to contact the school directly to handle this matter. No need for a lawyer at this stage.

briandear 5y ago

But the school doesn’t own the machine, the parent does.