Did a School Use Webcams to Spy on Students at Home?

19.02.2010
Don't look now, but your laptop may be watching you.

In what's shaping up to be a Springer-worthy scandal, a Pennsylvania school district is accused of using a school-issued laptop in his home. A lawsuit filed by the student's family claims the school remotely activated the computer's Webcam and observed the boy without his knowledge.

Right now, the case presents more questions than answers. One thing, though, is perfectly clear: Someone here isn't telling the full truth.

The school in question -- Harriton High School, near Philly -- provides laptops to all of its students as part of an initiative started last fall. According to , the laptops are offered in order to let students "work on projects and research both at school and at home" with "24/7 access to the software that they use in school."

The laptops also, however, have Webcams -- and, as information released in light of this week's lawsuit confirms, those Webcams can be remotely activated by school staff.