<p>The Pennsylvania school district accused of using tracking and remote monitoring software to take images of students at home has now acknowledged that more than 56,000 pictures were taken during the past two years. Reports also say that student chats (IM?) were captured, as well as screenshots. In some cases the tracking software was run for weeks, snapping a picture every fifteen minutes. </p>
<p>Lower</a> Merion details scope of Web-cam surveillance | Philadelphia Inquirer | 04/20/2010</p>
<p>Another article reported that at least in one case, administrators tracked the wrong computer, snapping images of a child whose name was similar to the child whose computer they were planning to track. </p>
<p>In a separate request for sanctions for failing to provide the assistant principal's home computer, the plaintiff's lawyer quotes some of the email language related to the scanning:
"For instance, in one email, when one IT person commented on how the viewing of the webcam pictures and screenshots from a student's computer was like 'a little LMSD soap opera', [employee] responded 'I know, I love it!'." The "I know, I love it!" was alleged to have been the response from the assistant principal.</p>
<p>I've been following this story since it first broke, and the additional information that is now being disclosed has given me the sense that understanding of privacy rights is not too strong in some school districts. I would guess that while Lower Merion is the district under the microscope, that many other school districts have engaged in equally egregious behavior that has not yet made the light of day. I've been looking to see if any policy changes related to this have come out of school districts in our area, and as yet, none have, which is somewhat troublesome given that more and more schools are providing computers -- and probably soon iPads -- for student use at home.</p>