FBI Probing Pa School Accusing Of Spying On Students With Webcams

We mentioned recently that a school in PA is in hot water over allegedly spying on students in their homes by activating the webcams on school provided notebooks. The school naturally denies that the feature is used for spying with claims that the feature is to allow it to find lost or stolen notebooks.

The case got a bit more interesting over the weekend when The Washington Post reported that the FBI is now investigating the school to determine if there was any wrongdoing. The school in question is in the Lower Merion School District. A district spokesperson said that the parents were not informed that the webcams could be activated in their homes without permission, but the paperwork students signed to get the laptops stated that.

News of the suit broke last Thursday when a suit was filed after a student was allegedly shown an image of "inappropriate behavior" inside his home by school staff. The school in question assigned Apple laptops to 2,300 students at two high schools. I don't get how a school could possibly think it was OK to activate webcams remotely that could be in a student's room where they could be undressing without permission or warning.