The INQ: Always giving more than you really wanted
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US high school spies on its students
A US SCHOOL is being sued for spying on its students using laptop PCs that it provided to do homework.
According to Silicon Valley sleuth, the Harriton High School in Philadelphia is being sued by the parents of Blake Robbins, who it had accused of "improper behaviour in his home."
The school issued laptop PCs to its pupils so they could do their homework. Fair enough, but the laptops included webcams and the school also added spyware so it could could keep an eye on the students, that is, spy on them and their families outside of school hours in their own homes.
Robbins' outraged parents got the school to confess regarding its surveillance and now they have sued the school district for violations of the Electronic Communications Privacy Act and other laws.
The complaint in the class action lawsuit is here, and it states, "Unbeknownst to Plaintiffs and the members of the Class, and without their authorization, Defendants have been spying on the activities of the Plaintiffs and Class members by the Defendant's indiscriminate use of and ability to remotely activate the webcams incorporated in to each laptop issued to students by the School District."
The lawsuit goes on to say, "the indiscriminate remote activation of the webcams incorporated into each laptop was accomplished without the knowledge or consent of the Plaintiffs or the members of the class." µ
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job well done.
VNC not VLC. Slip of the finger.
I hate to break it to you, but you can do the same if not worse under Windows. MacOS includes VLC for remote desktop access. VLC can be installed on Windows machines also, or you can use the RDP screen sharing protocol that's built into Windows by default.
Part of the administrator toolkit for OSX allows admins to remotely support and update machines that belong to the owning company. Exactly the same kind of tools are available to Windows admins when they create a system build. Both are open to abuse by admins. Try reading through some of the BOFH columns here to get an idea of what they can do.
"THIS IS THE BIGGEST OUTRAGE OF BIG BROTHER AND PRIVACY I HAVE EVER SEEN AND SHOULD NOT BE TOLERATED BY ANYONE."
Yeah amazing how you can see what's on your computer when you're on your computer.
Anyway, keep on trolling.
NEC got lightScribed mixed into announced demo at CeBit, actually new higher speed is improved correction of data, allowing higher speed. Here:
http://www.techspot.com/news/37935-nec-develops-16gb-s-link-for-nextgen-communication-interfaces.html
STewie
I've been very concerned about this for some years now and have been analysing ways to block these exploits across linux and windows based platforms.
In the end it became apparent it would be impossible to design a 100% effective software solution and instead decided to approach this problem from the hardware side. Again having designed several prototypes I found that the most effective design was as usual the simplest...sticking plaster over webcam lense...lol
Ive seen the systems they use and it will be a shock to everyone to know that MACOS10 is what those schools use. They actually use it during school to check on where students are and to enforce things like chating. They can see what windows are open on the remote computer (much like x11). When i saw that, it made me sick. I was wondering why the hell do all the students have apple computers, then i saw the pedovision. The report even showed a girl in the bathroon, you could tell because of the background. It all made sense.
@Scott, you don't have to always install apps, not with a persistant system as offered by those linuxes you can install on a USB Flash Drive thanks, to Linux live USB creator
http://www.linuxliveusb.com/en.html
In Phillee' Story, 20 years imprisonment for use of Digital Comunication for:
Federal
Civil Rights Act
4th Amendment
Electronic Communications Privacy Act
Computer Fraud and Abuse Act
Stored Communication Act
State
Pennsylvania Wiretapping and Electronic Surveillance Act
Pennsylvania common law (1)
common law list is pages long. People deserve 20 years Imprisonment, yet Hon Court System Is Showy Porn Event In ItSelf.
NEXT:
Case Involved in. Artie Mitchel, Owner of O'Farrel Porn Theatre Group, Had Lost Mind due to CoCaine Addiction & was Prescribed AIDS medication, similar to Ciprox. ARTIE had met young man in Haight Ashbury District & used Young mand, released from half Way House in Oregon & truely NOT Competent in Judgement, As SEX TOY. Even Taking Teenager to Wifes Home in Marin County, Trying to Have SEXx With Young Man In Front of Her. ARTIES' Wife Threw Two Out of Home. ARTIE Returned to haight AShBury District &In Early Evening, Young Man Called Police. UnMarked Police Vechile, ARTIE & Young Man Met in PanHandle Park. Police told young Man if Wanted to Pursue Case, To Take .22 Caliber Rife Police Took To Meeting & Shoot ARTIE Mitchel theu Left Shoulder. Gentleman Took GUN & Shot ARTIE Mitchel Straight Thru ForeHead. END OF STORY. Signed:PHYSICIAN THOMAS STEWART von DRASHEK M.D.
Red theWashington Examiner: for r.t. mitchell rehash today.
I'm from Philly.
Knowing this community, who are all media-type related, it may have been staged as to get a large lawsuit.
Boy! is the you know what going to hit the fan when this gets into court. LOL
How stupid do you have to be as a school official to think you could do this legally. ha ha
The school district claims the remote use of cams was used only when laptops were reported stolen or missing, however that doesn't really seem to fit in with what we're hearing. Unfortunately, in America education has been replaced by discipline as the emphasis in schools. Some school districts would have had the police charge him criminal with behavior, so he's lucky in that regard.
What's to stop a pedo teacher from remote accessing the laptop while the kids are changing in their rooms? And why the hell is it the anyone's business what the kids do outside of school in the first place? If a parent decides to sue the school for sexual abuse or whatever a plucky lawyer might take their case.
Yes it is true, that is probably the only real way to be safe. If your going to check your online bank account any security related internet function. But is not very practical. Ubuntu(as an example) does a great job of detecting hardware. But broadcom sta that take awhile to detect and install. If you want to use certain apps you will have to install them every time you boot.
The real problem is who watches out for our safety and security on the internet. In truth no one. I don't even pretend to trust Microsoft or Apple.
Linux does do a much better job and making money is not the motive of why Linux exists. In the U.S I think we have a government Representative, however I could be wrong and is very vague of who or what is in charge if anyone. Basically we are at the mercy any anyone who makes software.We are told over and over that "cookies" (a strange name for spy ware, but makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside) are ok. They store important data on our computer.
Important to who? advertisers mostly. But to although anyone to store data on our personal computer and the use of third party "cookies"(Yum, cookies) should be banned. Most browser allow the user to disable third party cookies but it's an option. Then there are web bugs and who knows what else there are storing on my computer. And then there's a whole other realm of software called flash player.
Some people think this is paranoia.
If you want to keep your personal data safe, you damn well better be a little paranoid. If used to be thief's used to got out and work for there money. Steal you car your or break into your house. Now they just sit at home targeting the average user who fails to protect themselves. I am willing to bet most people have no idea what a cookie is or if there computer is safe. Well Microsoft says "it's the safest operating ever" so people assume there safe. Where there's money to be made, NOTHING is safe. That's the truth, plain and simple.
It's really to bad we should have to go to great lengths such as only booting form a Linux live cd.I do believe this is the only real safe way also.
The flash privacy settings site is very interesting indeed, and barely known.
privacy, it's one little step away (at least in this case)
0. obtain untrusted laptop
1. insert linux live cd
I read about this yesterday and on one hand and nor surprised. Look up you flash player settings manager. It is only a matter of time that others of spying on us if there not already. I leaned about this flash player cookies, third party cookies,mic and speaker controls etc last weak and about blew a gasket. either no one knows of no one cares. Check for yourself whats on your OWN computer at the flash player website settings manager at http://www.macromedia.com/support/documentation/en/flashplayer/help/settings_manager.html
Click on the global settings privacy settings. This is whats on YOUR computer and not an example. Note the mic and web cam controls on one of the last tags. THIS IS THE BIGGEST OUTRAGE OF BIG BROTHER AND PRIVACY I HAVE EVER SEEN AND SHOULD NOT BE TOLERATED BY ANYONE.People are spying on you at will and seems to be almost unknown. If you change any settings as I have done, many websites will not work.
THIS is the biggest breach of privacy I have ever seen in my life.While I can't say for sure this was done with flash player, flash player already has the tools to do it. Abobe does explain this in there privacy policy but you agree by clicking download. Most oem computers come with flash player installed and almost know one ever see's the eula and that's not by accident.If you have a mac of use Linux, your still not safe, The same flash features are own all operating systems, I have checked.
If you don't trust my link for flash player settings manager, just Google yourself. Understanding what flash player can do to you and your computer if of great importance, it really is.
about the turd cams!
Couple years ago, there was a flash exploit that did the same thing but was it an exploit or was it a government backdoor that became common known and then labeled an exploit? can't trust the government when it has so many little secrets. This was probably a test run of features in the secret treaty obama and the content mafia are pushing forward with.