CYBER CRIME: Harrington High School Hidden Webcam Surveillance

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CYBER CRIME Harrington High School Hidden
Webcam Surveillance
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Presentation ByTeam in the FrontJeremy
BruggerJim KleinAnthony KnollhoffSam
ReinhardtDiane Torneire
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OVERVIEW I. Applicable Issues, Technology
and LawsII. Issues Enabling Hidden Surveillance
III. Recorded Penalties for Illegal
SurveillanceIV. Implications for Managers in
the IT World.
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APPLICABLE ISSUES,TECHNOLOGY LAWS
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Issues, Technology Laws

• ISSUES
• Nationally ranked Harrington High School in
  Philadelphia administered laptops to their 2300
  students, but then monitored them in their homes
  via webcam without alerting them or the parents
  that they would be doing so. February, 2010
• A civil action lawsuit was filed against Lower
  Merion School District.  (Blake J Robbins v.
  Lower Merion School District)

RIGHT Plaintiff, Blake Robbins holds his
school-issued laptop.
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Issues, Technology Laws

• ISSUES cont
• School claims that the webcams were strictly a
  security feature used to track stolen laptops and
  that the feature has since been disabled.
• School admitted that they did not notify parents
  or students about the webcam security feature
  and reportedly regretted the
• decision not to do so. 2/19/10
• School Districts IS coordinator
• declined to testify, citing 5th
• Amendment April 9, 2010

LEFT Lindy Matsko, assistant vice principal,
denies authorizing the Webcam to spy on students.
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Issues, Technology Laws

• ISSUES cont
• The case is currently
• ongoing in the U.S.
• District Court system
• (Eastern District of
• Pennslyvania)
• Deep pockets? - Lower Merions per capita income
  is 5 in the nation for those with a population
  over 50,000

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Issues, Technology Laws

• TECHNOLOGY
• Laptop webcams cameras attached to computers
  that have the ability to transmit photos and
  video.
• Remote operation use of radio or wire
  technology to control the operation of equipment
  from  a distance or remote location
• Security censors systems with controls that
  activate when property is stolen or compromised.

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Issues, Technology Laws

• LAWS
• Exact violations their application to this case
  have not been fully disclosed.
• Currently under consideration in the U.S.
  District Court system.
• The following laws have identified as those that
  have been potentially violated by the School
  District
• 4th Amendment of U.S. Constitution
• Right to Privacy protects citizens
• from unlawful searches
• Civil Rights Act Section 1983 guards
• citizens against anti-constitutional  activity
  by State or Federal Authority (in this case, the
  school district)

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Issues, Technology Laws

• LAWS cont
• Potential Violations cont
• Electronic Communication Privacy Act- protects
  citizens electronic communication during
  transfer
• Stored Communications Act protects information
  stored online
• Computer Fraud and Abuse Act protects citizens
  from intentional unlawful computer access
• Pennsylvania Wiretapping and Electronic
  Surveillance Act protects against unlawful
  computer surveillance
• Pennsylvania common law

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ISSUES ENABLING HIDDEN SURVEILLANCE
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Enabling Issues

• Seemingly Just Cause for Implementation
• Webcam monitor would allow
• the school to track stolen
• computers
• Once implemented, provided
• an easy, concealed method to
• track student behavior
• National existence of school faculty misconduct
• In their 2002 survey on 2064 students in 8th
  through 11th grade, the American Association of
  University Women (AAUW) reported 38 of the
  students were harassed by teachers or school
  employees.

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Enabling Issues cont

• Misleading information regarding monitor
• Parents signed an agreement that noted the
  school's ability to remotely "monitor hardware"
  but did not go into any detail about the Webcam
  and how it could be used to watch families
• Students were not aware of the schools ability
  to monitor their behavior at home
• School justified its behavior.

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RECORDED PENALTIES FOR ILLEGAL SURVEILLANCE
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Recorded Penalties

• PAST PRESIDENCE
• First of its kind in terms of a school spying on
  its students.
• Problem occurs with the fact this is an ongoing
  investigation, so no outcome yet.
• Could lead to new federal laws against the use of
  spying technology

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Recorded Penalties cont

• LAWSUITS FOR GENERAL SPYING
• ACLU v. NSA(2006)
• http//www.aclu.org/national-security/aclu-sues-st
  op-illegal-spying-americans-saying-president-not-a
  bove-law
• Filed to stop Bush Administrations secret
  surveillance program put in place shortly after
  9/11
• NSA was data mining regular peoples emails,
  chats and phone calls
• They also felt that Bush out-stepped his boundary
  by signing this program into law without a
  required court order
• Lawsuit claimed that 1st and 4th amendments were
  violated
• ACLU won initial suit in 2006 and Judge agreed
  that Bush overstepped his boundaries
• This was later appealed and is still in further
  litigation but this was a big victory for those
  afraid of being illegally recorded

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Recorded Penalties cont

• LEGAL RAMIFICATIONS
• According to Eye Spy Video recording service
  unless you are in law enforcement with a valid
  COURT ORDER, monitoring or recording private
  conversations of is generally considered
  eavesdropping or wiretapping
• In order to avoid this signs have to be posted or
  an audio messages stating this conversation may
  be recorded for quality assurances
• http//www.eyespyvideo.com/Legal-Issues-Considerat
  ions.html

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Recorded Penalties cont

• Pennsylvania's Wiretapping Electronic
  Surveillance Control Act, (18 Pa. C.S. 5701, et
  seq)
• States that in general electronic surveillance is
  illegal
• Includes interception(recording), oral and wire
  communications
• Two types of consent when it comes to
  surveillance One Party Consent Two/All
  Party Consent
• Pennsylvania falls into the latter, more
  restrictive category
• Since the children/parents had no clue they were
  being recorded, this would appear to be an
  illegal surveillance
• The federal statute (18 U.S.C. 2510 et seq)
  requires one party consent but allows states to
  be more restrictive
• http//www.attorneygeneral.gov/crime.aspx?id199

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Recorded Penalties cont

• Response To School Surveillance By U.S. Congress
• On April 15, 2010 Bill S.3214 was submitted by
  Senators Feingold, Specter and Kaufman urging the
  prohibition of video surveillance except those
  authorized under chapter 119 of title 18, United
  States Code or Foreign Intelligence Surveillance
  Act of 1978
• This was a direct response to Lower Merions
  video surveillance of their students
• Since technically Merion did not break any
  federal law, though they may have broken
  Pennsylvanias law on surveillance, this is being
  introduced to get illegal video surveillance
  added to any previous laws against this

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Recorded Penalties cont

• Response To School Surveillance By U.S. Congress
  cont
• They cite in their argument U.S. v. Torres (1984)
  that, Electronic interception, being by nature a
  continuing rather than one-shot invasion, is even
  less discriminating than a physical search,
  because it picks up private conversations (most
  of which will usually have nothing to do with any
  illegal activity) over a long period of time. . .
  . Electronic interception is thought to pose a
  greater potential threat to personal privacy than
  physical searches. . . . Television surveillance
  is identical in its indiscriminate character to
  wiretapping and bugging .

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IMPLICATIONS TO MANAGERS IN THE IT WORLD
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IT Application

• Information technology is very powerful, so
  managers need to understand the legal
  implications to avoid issues similar to this one
• Managers may need to monitor employees' use of
  the company's technology, but must also be
  sensitive to
• the laws that protect individual privacy
  rights
• 
  Managers need to clearly
• define the allowed corporate
• personal uses of its
• property technology to
• avoid misunderstanding

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IT Application Cont

• Along with defining the allowed uses, managers
  must also strictly enforce the 'terms of use' if
  they are infringed upon. Even if this means
  admitting wrong-doing
• Managers need to foster transparency to reassure
  employees that a system of checks and balances
  exists so they can rest assured that their best
  interests are taken into account

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Conclusion

• This case brings to light several legal ethical
  issues that any IT user may encounter especially
  managers. A take-away from this investigation is
  that although technology has many capabilities,
  users do not always have the right to use them to
  the fullest even when the users are in an
  authoritative position.

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References

• http//en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harriton_High_School
• http//en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blake_J._Robbins_v._L
  ower_Merion_School_District
• http//en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lower_Merion_Township
  ,_PA
• http//dataprivacy.foxrothschild.com/2010/02/artic
  les/right-to-privacy/pennsylvania-school-district-
  sued-after-allegedly-remotely-activating-student-l
  aptop-webcam/
• http//en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sexual_harassment_in_
  education
• http//www.attorneygeneral.gov/crime.aspx?id199
• http//www.eyespyvideo.com/Legal-Issues-Considerat
  ions.html
• http//www.aclu.org/national-security/aclu-sues-st
  op-illegal-spying-americans-saying-president-not-a
  bove-law