Added: Feb 24, 2010
From: nawitus
Duration: 2:36
The spying software (LANRev) used against the children is showcased by a Lower Merion school tech Mike Perbix. "you're controlling someone's machine, you don't want them to know what you're doing" -Mike Perbix He also explains how in some cases the "theft tracking" was used by accident, and the webcam had captured 20 pictures. "Hi, I'm a 2009 Graduate of Harriton Highschool. [...] I and a few of my fellow peers were suspicious of this sort of activity when we first received the laptops. The light next to the web cam would randomly come on, whether we were in class, in study hall or at home minding our own business. We reported it multiple times, each time getting the response: "It's only a malfunction. if you'd like we'll look into it and give you a loaner computer." More information here and thanks to stryde: http://strydehax.blogspot.com/2010/02/spy-at-harrington-high.html
Channel: Education
Rating: 3.0952382' max='5' min='1' numRaters='21' rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#overall ( ratings) Views: 10426 Comments: 43
xXAnubbusXx Says:
Mar 15, 2010 - Honestly people are overeating because the media is portraying this in a stupid sensational way. I am a LMSD alum. As a student i worked with perbix and many people from the LM tech department and know their members very well. This software... is used for... as its name, "Theft Recovery". The only time Mike or Carol activate this software is when a phone call comes in of a missing or stolen laptop. The photos and DNS info are sent via secure website to the LM police, who knew about the system.
LadyGreenEyes964 Says:
Mar 26, 2010 - In the other video, the teacher was watching some girl fix her hair, and that's just what they SHOWED US they were looking at. Clear invasion of privacy.
MessiiG Says:
Apr 18, 2010 - wtf is this for? why are they even doing this what a stupid shitty thing to do they dont even tell the students or their parents that they are doing this......... and thats illegal
antonc81 Says:
Apr 29, 2010 - @xXAnubbusXx the examples filmed here: watch#!v=Vza_bMuy42M - look like pure surveillance for its own sake there's no theft recovery going on there.
tron81 Says:
May 7, 2010 - @xXAnubbusXx what you think now? It's clear now that the school made a huge mistake with the laptop tracking software by not respecting the privacy of the students. They took pictures of students at home who didn't steal a laptop. Tons of mistakes made.
tron81 Says:
May 7, 2010 - @TheRealAmyBrown are you one of the students who had their picture taken by a laptop? You're gonna get a ton of money if so.
xXAnubbusXx Says:
May 7, 2010 - @antonc81 If you read the 78 page report by Ballard Spahr LLC lead by Hank Hockeimer, with L-3 Computer forensics, you will see otherwise. Let me outline some stuff for you. "we found no evidence that District personnel used TheftTrack to spy on students, or that District personnel surreptitiously downloaded images from the LANrev server' (Page 67). He outlines that the issue was lack of policy and chain of command, and emphasized that neither his team nor L3 found any evidence of spying.
xXAnubbusXx Says:
May 7, 2010 - @tron81 @tron81 @tron81 Look at my post above... the following info comes from Hank Hockeimer, formal federal prosecutor, and L3 Forensics, the leading company in computer forensics who took custody of all the LanRev servers 10 weeks go to conduct their investigation. The full report can be found at the LMSD website. I recommend you read it. It outlines how It they found no evidence of spying, but the issue was caused by the former head of ITs negligence and lack of controlling policy.
xXAnubbusXx Says:
May 7, 2010 - Also... for the record, i am a 2009 graduate of Lower Merion High School, and in both my Junior and Senior years i worked in the IS/IT department with Mike Perbix and some of the other IT workers, so i know what i am talking and i know these people. They don't just sit at home watching students. Mike Perbix is one of the smartest people i know, The issue came from Mrs. DiMedio, Former head of IT whose decision it was to keep this info from students and parents (of which Perbix disagreed).
tron81 Says:
May 7, 2010 - @xXAnubbusXx that report was conducted by a lawyer hired by the school district, so you should assume it's biased in favor of the school. I did read the report, BTW. No evidence of spying? Sure the school didn't intend to spy when they set up the theft tracking software, but that's what happened. Thousands of pictures of students at home were secretly taken. One of those pictures was used to try to accuse Blake Robbins of wrongdoing. If that's not spying, what the heck is?
tron81 Says:
May 7, 2010 - @xXAnubbusXx I think that working with Perbix and other IT staff has made you biased. I know you feel a loyalty to them and your school. I would as well. I don't blame the IT staff as much as the administrators. It was the admins who told the IT people when to turn on the tracking. The admins should have taken the responsibility to make sure it was never turned on unless it was a stolen/missing laptop. They should have also made sure it got turned off when the laptop was recovered.
tron81 Says:
May 7, 2010 - @xXAnubbusXx may I also ask if you were the student intern who sent the e-mail warning the IT staff about the dangers the laptop recovery software posed to the privacy of the students? That kid had better judgment than the highly paid IT staff, but was almost ridiculed for it. "There is no way that I would approve or advocate for the monitoring of students at home.I suggest you take a breath and relax." If they'd only listened....
xXAnubbusXx Says:
May 7, 2010 - @tron81 Your right. I am a tad bias. And no that student was not me. Also yes they were hired to do an Un-bias investigation, in coordination with L3 forensics. Two top componys who specilise in conducting unbias internel investigations. It was also not the admins fault. Most of them did not know how the program worked. If you wanna place Blane, donut on the former head of IT. She was the one who did not implement policies needed to safeguard this, and who fought to keep it behind closed doors.
xXAnubbusXx Says:
May 7, 2010 - @tron81 The legality of the program falls on LanRevs owner. lMSD used the program how it was suppose to be used. The only issue was lack of policy to safeguard students. In many cases perbix was not told to shut it off until weeks after the laptop was returned. (sorry for typos, iPod keypad is fail)
tron81 Says:
May 7, 2010 - @xXAnubbusXx I don't see how you can blame the LanRev software company. The software worked exactly as it was supposed to work. It's up to the end user to make sure they're using the software in a legal way, the same as any other software.
tron81 Says:
May 7, 2010 - @xXAnubbusXx I think there is a lot of blame to go around. The admins expected IT to handle privacy issues, and the IT people thought the admins were doing that. That happens sometimes when this many people are involved. I think the information provided in the report was probably unbiased, but the conclusion that the school didn't spy on students and placing most of the blame on the former IT head was meant to protect the school and create a scape goat.
xXAnubbusXx Says:
May 7, 2010 - @tron81@tron81 What they said is they found no forensic evidence to conclude that any member of the staff intentionaly used this softwear to spy on students. They found that in some cases mistakes were made that led to the softwear not being shut off, but that was due to lack of policy and is not spying. In face they found that no pics were downloaded to computers unless being part of an active investigation, most times in conjuntion with LM police.
xXAnubbusXx Says:
May 7, 2010 - @tron81 Yes mistakes were made, but I don't see justification for the word spying. They used the softwear as it was ment to be used. It was activated on only 78 computers over two years, and only when reported stolen, missing, or if the student was not allowed to take it off campus. As for a scape goat. People throw that word around to much. If some did somthing wrong, that does not make them a scape goat, that makes them guilty.
tron81 Says:
May 8, 2010 - @xXAnubbusXx you also have to count the 2 mistake activations and the 10 activations for unknown reasons. The report also says the school purged the LANRev database because it was getting slow. There may have been many more non-missing/stolen laptops that had the tracking activated that we'll never know about. If nothing else, what they did to Blake Robbins amounts to spying. They took web cam pictures on a non-missing/stolen machine and used them against him.
xXAnubbusXx Says:
May 8, 2010 - @tron81 the server purge was for IP tracking only. They stated that for IP only tracking was slowing down the system. Because of this they purged that data. As fir Blakes case he fell under guidelines because his computer did not have insurance on it, thus he was NOT allowed to have it off campus. As to why SS and pics were checked off was prob a mistake. Mistaken activations happen. Just as all softwear there is the place for human error.
miasmablk Says:
May 28, 2010 - well thanks for letting us know everything we need in order to steal one basically
TheRealAmyBrown Says:
May 28, 2010 - @tron81 I don't go to that school, I go to one in Texas.
simlishcroft Says:
Jun 5, 2010 - @utuber177 wanker . (the video is a waker)
SinisterBandit18 Says:
Jul 28, 2010 - @sangolt88 Taking Away our Freedom :D
. . . . . . . because these video appear directly from youtube.com which we cannot control it.)
jasoncomplicated Says:
Mar 13, 2010 - not as bad as the one school that gave the students the laptops to take home. i dont know about some of you but in the morning ill check my email with out a shirt on. the school admins have full control over these things but we dont call them invasion of privacy or child pornography. after all its to protect the kids right? WHEN ARE YOU GOING TO WAKE UP?