I remember when you only had to worry about your locker being searched.
In what seems like a scene from his own techno-geek surveillance novel Little Brother (which, as a former teenage troublemaker, I really enjoyed), Cory Doctorow reveals a horrifying story about school administrators invading the privacy of their own students:
“According to the filings in Blake J Robbins v Lower Merion School District (PA) et al, the laptops issued to high-school students in the well-heeled Philly suburb have webcams that can be covertly activated by the schools’ administrators, who have used this facility to spy on students and even their families.”
Robbins, apparently, “was disciplined for ‘improper behavior in his home’ and the Vice Principal used a photo taken by the webcam as evidence.”
Since the story has come to light school officials have admitted that “student laptops were shipped with software for covertly activating their webcams,” but they, of course, deny any wrongdoing.
