Lower Merion School District to release its investigation into webcam spying

Lower Merion School District plans to release the results of its internal investigation into the laptop spying case this evening at 8:99 p.m. A high school sophomore and his parents are suing the district over invasion of privacy after district officials used a webcam to snap photos of him in his home. Meanwhile attorneys representing a number of students are trying to prevent even more privacy violations.

Lower Merion School District plans to release the results of its internal investigation into the laptop spying case this evening at 8:99 p.m. A high school sophomore and his parents are suing the district over invasion of privacy after district officials used a webcam to snap photos of him in his home. Meanwhile attorneys representing a number of students are trying to prevent even more privacy violations.

The district’s internal investigation has turned up 56,000 images and screen shots taken over two years. Some of those shots were taken after stolen laptops had been recovered. Mary Catherine Roper is with the ACLU and represents one of the families. Roper says the screen shots are more troublesome, “So this means student’s emails, their IM messages with their friends, that they never expected anyone to be seeing or reading, that they never expected anyone to know about. Or, what they were looking at on the internet, all of that is sitting there like a ticking time bomb and the question is can we diffuse it.”

Roper says in addition to the students themselves, those on the receiving end of messages are also at risk for invasion of privacy. She says the work of figuring out who gets notified and how, is complex. The judge is expected rule on that this week.