Mohammad Dashti's (Article Presentation)

- Author: Jacqui Cheng
- Title of article: “Parents: school used webcam to spy on our kid at home”
- Publication: Ars Technica
- Date of article: Feb 18, 2010
- Website: http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/2010/02/school-under-fire-for-spying-on-kid-via-webcam-at-home.ars

Short Summary:-
Laptops are issued more often these days. Many high schools are providing their students equipped laptops in order to access the schools programs, resources and projects, which they can take home with. But there was an incident in Pennsylvania high school, when one of the students family discovered that the school equipped their laptops with a 24/7 access to activate their webcams. However the student Blake Robbin was disciplined by the assistant principle of his school for engaging in improper behavior in his own home. The Robbins family filed a lawsuit against the school for spying on their kid and violating a serious privacy problem. According to the article the school did not want to discuss this incident with media or any one. The author also mentioned a similar case from 2008 when a woman in Florida took her laptop for repair and eventually discovered that it was equipped to take photos of her at home without her knowledge.

Issues that I found:-
1. Do the school have the right to violate their students privacy at home, in order to discipline them?
2. Although webcams are very useful these days, should they be removed from our laptops?

My opinion:-
I think that what the school did was a sick pervert violation to the students privacy. Before we judge the students for what they are doing at home, we must judge the principle who is watching those poor children.

Mohammad Dashti - EAP2 (B)