SPYCAM UPDATE:

[PCIntern]

A reliable source has stated to yours truly that School District computers' IN THE POSSESSION OF FACULTY MEMBERS ALSO HAD GREEN LIGHTS COME ON PERIODICALLY, indicating that the webcam was activated AND, strangely, this occurrence was limited to women, to the best of the source's knowledge.

Stay tuned to the DU Station for further updates...

[aquart]

1. Do not undress in front of your pc.

[PCIntern]

2. at least not with the green light on...

unless you're at a bondage club and are a republican....

[RKP5637]

13. And then the light turns red! LOL n/t

[leftofcool]

5. Oh shit!

Maybe I oughta go scrounging the net for nude photos of myself. Naw, not at 63, maybe when I was 25.....

[hobbit709]

3. First thing I do on any computer is disable Remote Access.

[PCIntern]

4. Impossible in this instance for the students...

I don't know about the teachers. Best thing they COULD have done was to place a piece of electrical tape over the lens.

Complex story here...many hundreds of posts, in case you aren't familiar...

:hi:

[hobbit709]

6. Boot up with Linux Live CD

runs in memory, doesn't use hard drive at all. nothing can be activated because onboard OS is not used at all.

Or every time the light comes on, place a photo of a pile of dogshit at the focal point of the webcam.

[PCIntern]

9. these were school computers...

students not allowed varations to Apple OS...

As I said, very long story...

[hobbit709]

11. Not a variation to the OS.

OS is untouched, not used at all. The Linux OS is kept in RAM and gives you access to internet and various apps without accessing the hard drive and system. When done, remove CD and restart computer. No one knows anything because nothing was done to the OS or hard drive.

[PCIntern]

14. OK...gotcha.

These kids were utilizing the computers normally...the district was activating the cameras without telling the parents that this might occur. We had threads with hundreds of posts here discussing the reasonableness or lack thereof of placing spying devices into homes without telling parents AND that there were many reports of the webcams being activated by the District even though the computer was netiher lost nor stolen, the only essential reasons for the activation according to the District's communications with the IT and the students.

The kids had no reason to think that there was any spying on them until problems arose and statements were made. Lawsuits now progressing...including an FBI investigation.

[hobbit709]

16. I know, I responded to some of those.

Got pretty pissed at the apologists for the school system.

That's why I have a bootable thumb drive to run Linux Live on a computer that I don't trust or don't want anyone to know what I'm doing.

[slampoet]

15. running unauthorized linux installs were possible grounds for expulsion in this particular school.

THAT, is the real issue here.

Everyday people can implement technical solutions but these are students who were forbidden to protect their privacy under penalty of loss of their education.

Let's not get bogged on technical issues, they are red herrings.

[PCIntern]

17. thank you for elucidating so clearly...

I'm still so fucking mad, I can't see straight...

Thanks again...

PC

[hobbit709]

19. In the school, maybe

At home is different story.

[slampoet]

21. Let's not get bogged on technical issues, they are red herrings.

[Echo In Light]

7. "Security" of any sort is so conducive to ulterior agendas

[sui generis]

8. utter complete silliness

I can turn on your camera if it has a discoverable port assignment, and in most cases can do it without turning on the power light.

And there are dozens of software packages that actually do that, and reliably. I occasionally ping the cameras at my house using a third party software pkg if everyone is out on vacation to check on the house status and audit house sitters / pet sitters, and know for a fact that the lights don't come on if I override them on any of the cams. I've tested it.

Bwa ha ha hahahahaha.

For the record and happily so, turns out I've hired mostly reliable people, and I've never caught anyone stripping for the chihuahua, training the critters to do stupid human tricks or doing an alien autopsy in the kitchen. :P

[CLANG]

10. If you are going to masturbate to internet porn

make sure you first throw a towel over your dick!

[WillyT]

12. LOL !!! - See The Porn... Be The Porn...

Thanks for the advice!

:rofl:

:evilgrin:

:hi:

[Ian David]

18. Solution here

Just place it over the camera.

Geesh!

Fuckin' geeks: "Oh, just scan for the port assignment and reconfigure blah blah blah..."

You'll be the first ones eaten after The Apocalypse.


:P

[NeoGreen]

22. I think it was explained in the original posts (month ago?) that ...

... putting tape over the web cam was considered a violation of the rules for "disabling" the computer and was a punishable act.

I maybe wrong, but I do seem to remember this being discussed.

[Ian David]

23. Really? That seems excessive, non-enforceable and suspicious. n/t

[NeoGreen]

24. Again, from memory, but I think that is how this whole thing...

... was discovered. The school punished a kid for doing something wrong (with or in front of) the web cam, and they used a photo from the web cam as evidence. The kicker is that the supposed act happened in the kids home, during non-school hours.

[PCIntern]

25. ...eating Mike and Ike's...

Even if they were drugs...no effin good - Magna Carta stuff right there.

[Ian David]

27. He was eating Mike & Ikes that someone mistook for pills.

If you google "Mike and Ike" this is the first thing that comes up:


Family suing school over webcams speaks

They say it began with the principal of Harriton High calling them up and accusing Blake of selling drugs at home, saying they saw it all through the webcam on the school issued computer.

"She said that she had pictures of Blake that were taken on his computer of him holding up little, what she thought, were pills, but what turned out to be Mike & Ike candies," Holly said.

"I mean at first, I couldn't say anything because she was accusing me of selling drugs , I couldn't fight back, but I thought this was terrible, how could they do this," Blake said.

Holly says it was an invasion of privacy and it was as if "we had a peeping tom in our house."

"I send my son to school to learn not to be spied on," Holly said.

More:
http://abclocal.go.com/wpvi/story?section=news/local&id=7288199

[TeeYiYi]

26. I like your answer ...

Made me laugh. :D

But, I wonder if the next post is true. The one about a mandate prohibiting covering the webcam.

That's one mandate I'd flagrantly ignore.

TYY

[Kber]

20. Interesting update - thanks

this is my DH's old highschool, so we've been following closely even though he moved away after college (to marry yours truly). :)