In a tale that mirrors the crushing privacy violations and vitriolic penal environment of Delores Umbridge in Harry Potter’s world, high school administrators in the Lower Merion School District of Pennsylvania used school issued computers, and software supposedly installed to protect students, to invade the privacy of the students homes and family lives.
Installed webcams were activated to spy on students and their families. This blew up in their face when a school administrator disciplined one student for “engaging in improper behavior in his home,” (that’s the language used in the family’s lawsuit) – and had the audacity to back her claim up by showing the photograph the webcam took of the Robbins boy as evidence.
The spying software’s been disabled, the school district’s being sued by the family, the makings of a class action suit have been initiated on behalf of the 1800 students given spy-equipped computers. And just maybe, now people will realize that violations of individuals’ privacy have gone way too far in a very unhealthy direction and it’s time for the public to draw the lines of what will and will not be tolerated.
Robbins v. Lower Merion School District (PDF)
See also
boingboing article
TechNewsWorld article