Judge Bans Activation Of Laptop Webcams

PHILADELPHIA - A federal court judge has ordered Lower Merion School District employees not to re-activate the laptop theft recovery program that is the focus of a high school student's cyber-spying claims.

Harriton High School sophomore Blake Robbins and his parents contend in their lawsuit he was disciplined as a result of a webcam image, and they had no idea the school-issued laptops were capable of taking pictures of students in their own homes.

Lower Merion officials have since said the laptop feature – used for recovery of stolen or missing laptops – was only utilized when schools were notified of missing computers, and the district has defended the actions of a Harriton assistant principal named in the suit.

The district said last week it stopped remotely activating the webcams, but the student's lawyer said that wasn't enough and sought an emergency temporary restraining order.

After a 2:30 p.m. hearing Monday went into recess for discussions abour language, the judge ordered shortly before 5 p.m. that the district and its "employees or agents are prohibited from remotely activating any and all webcams embedded in laptop computers."

Both parties stipulated to the wording of the order, which goes on to say the district won't contact anybody who could become party to the potential class-action lawsuit.

The district must preserve "all electronic data, files and storage media that pertain to the plaintiffs' claims."

And the two sides agreed to fully cooperate with any law enforcement and evidence preservation requests, which includes using a mutually-agreed-upon forensic consultant to make a mirror image of Robbins' hard drive, Fox 29's Sean Tobin reported outside the federal courthouse.

ACLU, U.S. Attorney Get Involved

Earlier in the day, the American Civil Liberties Union of Pennsylvania filed its own paperwork with the court supporting the plaintiffs' request for an injunction.

The ACLU filed its "friend of the court brief," citing other cases in which the groups says courts have found such surveillance to be "Orwellian."

The Associate Press previously reported that the FBI is probing the matter, and the Montgomery County District Attorney's Office is gathering information.

The FBI and Montgomery County District Attorney were already reported to be probing the matter, and now so is the regional U.S. Attorney's Office.

"Our focus will only be on whether anyone committed any crimes. At this point, very few facts are known," United States Attorney Michael L. Levy said.

The school district has already admitted and apologized for never letting students or parents know about the webcam technology.

In a Q&A document posted on the Lower Merion Web site Friday, the district superintendent admitted, "no formal notice" was given to students or their parents. In a questionnaire that accompanied the document, the superintendent said, "We regret that was not done." And in a Sunday night Web site posting, the attorney hired to review district practices, said, "to the extent any mistakes were made ... we will make recommendations for any needed changes."

The question is whether that admitted failure to notify is a smoking gun that will cost the district big time in a civil lawsuit.

Law Professor's Take

David Post, a Temple University law professor who specializes in Internet issues, told Fox 29 News, "The failure to get permission was just a colossal mistake on their part. I mean, there's no other way, as a legal matter, as sort of a moral matter, as a school administrative matter – somebody dropped the ball on that. I mean, we all make mistakes…"

Is that the kind of thing that could cost the district? "Oh, absolutely," Post said.

Post gave Lower Merion credit for admitting the failure to notify early and often, getting out in front of that part of the story. He noted the information would have come out sooner or later, and the admission sends the right message to parents.

Who Already Knew?

We know there was no formal notification by the district, there was a sense that some folks knew about it, anyway. Some students said they had a vague feeling they were being watched, and acted accordingly.

Fox 29 News called the president of the teachers' union, the Lower Merion Education Association, and asked whether Harriton teachers use district-issued laptops. The answer was "yes."

Asked whether those teachers knew the computers could be used as a remote camera, the answer was "no comment."