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Former Rutgers student convicted in webcam spying case

Former Rutgers University student Dharun Ravi, 20, was found guilty on all 15 counts against him.

A former Rutgers University student accused of using a webcam to spy on his gay roommate’s love life was convicted of invasion of privacy and anti-gay intimidation March 16 in a case that exploded into the headlines when the victim of the snooping committed suicide by throwing himself off a bridge.

Dharun Ravi, 20, shook his head slightly after hearing the guilty verdicts on all 15 counts against him.

He could get several years in prison—and could be deported to his native India, even though he has lived legally in the U.S. since he was a little boy—for his part in an act that cast a spotlight on teen suicide and anti-gay bullying and illustrated the internet’s potential for tormenting others.…Read More

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Pa. school district settles webcam spy lawsuits for $610K

Lower Merion will no longer use the tracking program.

A Philadelphia-area school district agreed Monday to pay $610,000 to settle two lawsuits over secret photos taken on school-issued laptops.

The Lower Merion School District admitted it captured thousands of webcam photographs and screen shots from student laptops in a misguided effort to locate missing computers.

Harriton High School student Blake Robbins, then 15, charged in an explosive civil-rights lawsuit filed in February that the district used its remote tracking technology to spy on him inside his home. Later evidence unearthed in the case showed that he was photographed 400 times in a two-week period, sometimes as he slept in his bedroom, according to his lawyer, Mark Haltzman.…Read More

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Pa. school settles 2 webcam spy lawsuits for $610K

A Philadelphia-area school district agreed Monday to pay $610,000 to settle two lawsuits over secret photos taken on school-issued laptops, reports the Associated Press. The Lower Merion School District admitted it captured thousands of webcam photographs and screen shots from student laptops in a misguided effort to locate missing computers. Harriton High School student Blake Robbins, then 15, charged in an explosive civil-rights lawsuit filed in February that the district used its remote tracking technology to spy on him inside his home. Later evidence unearthed in the case showed that he was photographed 400 times in a two-week period, sometimes as he slept in his bedroom, according to his lawyer, Mark Haltzman. The settlement calls for $175,000 to be placed in a trust for Robbins and $10,000 for a second student who filed suit, Jalil Hassan. Their lawyer, Mark Haltzman, will get $425,000 for his work on the case…

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Students to see photos snapped in Pa. webcam ‘spying’ case

Students in two suburban Philadelphia high schools will be allowed to view photographs taken by their school-issued laptops, and they may preview them first before deciding which images their parents may see, Computerworld reports. In a court order issued May 14, U.S. Chief Magistrate Judge Thomas Rueter said that certified letters would be sent to students who had been photographed when their Apple MacBooks’ cameras had been activated by IT personnel of Lower Merion School District. Lower Merion was sued in mid-February by Michael and Holly Robbins, and their teenage son Blake, a high school student at Harriton High School, after an assistant principal accused Blake of selling drugs and taking pills, and used a snapshot taken by his computer as evidence. Robbins claimed the pictures showed him eating candy. The district took more than 30,000 photographs using the students’ webcams, and another 27,000 screenshots using software designed to track lost, missing, or stolen laptops, according to a report commissioned by Lower Merion. That report laid most of the blame on the district’s IT staff for the excessive photo taking using its LANrev software. According to the report, 76 different student laptops were told to capture photographs and screenshots in the last two school years. The letters, which will also be mailed to affected students’ parents or guardians, will indicate the date of webcam activations, and the number of photographs and screenshots taken by each student’s computer. But the teenagers will be shown the images before parents…

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Report: No spying in Pa. school laptops case

Students have been at odds with the Pa. district over images captured by cameras on school-issued laptops. — Students have been at odds with the Lower Merion School District over images captured by cameras on school-issued laptops.

There’s no evidence a suburban Pennsylvania school district used school-issued laptops to spy on students, despite its questionable policies and its lack of regard for students’ privacy, according to a report issued May 3 by attorneys hired by the district.

Concerns about an online chat captured in a screen shot of a school-issued computer led to public disclosure of the Lower Merion School District’s laptop tracking program, according to the report by the Philadelphia law firm Ballard Spahr, which was presented at a meeting of the school board. The firm recommended a ban on remote activations of webcams and remote capturing of screen shots from computers issued to students. (See “Employee in webcam spying flap: Teen had no expectation of privacy” and “Family: Pa. district snared thousands of secret webcam images.”)

Harriton High School student Blake Robbins and his family alleged privacy violations over webcam images taken at home without their knowledge and sued the district, which said it secretly activated the webcams only to find missing laptops but admitted lax policies led it to capture 58,000 images.…Read More

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Insurer won’t pay legal costs in Pa. webcam spying case

An insurance company says it won’t pay legal costs for a suburban Philadelphia school district accused in a lawsuit of spying on students through laptop webcams, reports the Associated Press. Graphic Arts Mutual Insurance Company said in a lawsuit filed last week that its personal injury policy with the Lower Merion School District doesn’t cover those costs. The New York-based insurer filed suit against the district and the family of student Blake Robbins, which is suing the district for alleged privacy violations over webcam images taken at home without their knowledge. School district spokesman Doug Young said the insurance case has been referred to lawyers and would be handled appropriately. Robbins family lawyer Mark Haltzman said the two sides met for several hours April 21 but are far from reaching a settlement. The district says it secretly activated the webcams only to find missing laptops, but admits lax policies led it to capture 56,000 images…

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Employee in webcam spying flap: Teen had no expectation of privacy

A school employee says a student had no expectation to privacy. — A Lower Merion School District employee says student Blake Robbins had no expectation of privacy because he broke the rules of the district's laptop initiative.

A school technology official at the center of a webcam spying scandal says the Pennsylvania student suing her employer should not have had any expectation of privacy, because he took a laptop home without authorization. The development comes as the district in question admits it secretly captured at least 56,000 photographs and screen shots from the web cameras of laptops it issued to high school students.

In a court filing April 20, Lower Merion School District technology coordinator Carol Cafiero said officials activated tracking software that photographed student Blake Robbins because he failed to pay a required insurance fee.

Cafiero, who is on paid leave while the district investigates the laptop controversy, claims that Robbins had no legitimate expectation of privacy because he broke the rules. She also denies claims by Robbins’ attorney that she might be a “voyeur.”…Read More

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School webcam spying prompts call for new laws

Privacy laws haven't kept up with changes in technology, says Sen. Arlen Specter.

Sen. Arlen Specter, D-Pa., is pushing for new federal laws on electronic privacy as a school district in his home state struggles with a lawsuit over attempts to locate missing laptops by turning on webcams remotely—something that could have enabled it to record students at home.

Specter said at a field hearing of a Senate subcommittee March 29 that he believes existing wiretap and video-voyeurism statutes do not adequately address concerns in an era marked by the widespread use of cell-phone, laptop, and surveillance cameras.

“My family and I recognize that in today’s society, almost every place we go outside of our home we are photographed and recorded by traffic cameras, ATM cameras, and store surveillance cameras,” Blake Robbins, a student at Harriton High School who sued the Lower Merion School District last month, wrote in a statement read into the record at the hearing of the crime and justice subcommittee of the Senate Judiciary Committee.…Read More

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IT employees suspended in school webcam spying case

Two information technology employees of the Lower Merion School District have been placed on leave while an investigation continues into the use of remote surveillance software on student laptops, reports the Philadelphia Inquirer. The two people authorized to activate the software—Michael Perbix, a network technician, and Carol Cafiero, information systems coordinator—reportedly were put on paid leave last week while lawyers and technicians examine how the remote system was used. Lawyers for Cafiero and Perbix said their clients did nothing wrong. Perbix and Cafiero turned on the remote software only when a laptop was reported missing, they said—and administrators knew what they were doing. Their lawyers said the use of the software was no secret. On at least two occasions, the district turned over pictures and other information to Lower Merion police so they could help track stolen laptops. The district’s use of the software touched off a national furor when the parents of Harriton High School sophomore Blake Robbins, 15, filed a federal lawsuit on Feb. 16 saying that school officials used the remote-control software to invade his privacy…

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