Yes, you can be spied on through your own webcam! Let this true story be a lesson in how otherwise fun and useful technology can be turned against you if you don’t stay constantly alert.
A Philadelphia School district is facing a class-action lawsuit bought by parents of its high school students.
In 2009 the Lower Merion School District issued laptop computers — all factory-fitted with webcams — to its high school students. Commendable and progressive, no argument there.
Now for the “What what on earth were they thinking?” part of the story…
The computers were configured so that the webcams could be activated remotely by the school. See where this is going?
When I say “the school”, obviously I mean one or more persons at the school. As far as I know the individuals directly responsible haven’t been named yet, but lawyers representing the incensed parents have aimed their class-action suit at the school district, members of the Board of Directors and the Superintendent. Not specifically named, as far as I know, is the person who, by an act of sheer stupidity, let the cat out of the bag.
How Dumb Do They Come?
Apparently the Assistant Principal of Harrington High reprimanded a student for “improper behavior in his home” and presented a screen-shot from the WebCam built into the boy’s laptop.
Now, quite apart from the legal and security breaches, should anyone with an IQ low enough to try a stunt like that be entrusted with the education of children?
You would literally have to be as thick as a brick to think that (a) such action would be viewed as acceptable by the law and the community, and (b) that you would have any chance at all of getting away with it.
The school district has placed a response on its website, but their reasoning doesn’t stand up to inspection. Quote:
“The tracking-security feature was limited to taking a still image of the operator and the operator’s screen. This feature has only been used for the limited purpose of locating a lost, stolen or missing laptop. The District has not used the tracking feature or web cam for any other purpose or in any other manner whatsoever.”
Apparently the last sentence is completely false, hence the lawsuit. And as for the rest, well, a mugshot of the operator might be of use in prosecuting a thief if he could be identified and apprehended, but neither a screen-shot nor a photo of the operator is going to be of much assistance in actually locating a stolen computer.
This revelation raises another question…
Just how widespread is computer surveillance by schools?
On the surface the video below is a feel-good story about how the application of available technologies has been life changing for the students at one particular school.
But pay careful attention at the point starting at 4 minutes 37 seconds into the video. That teacher is using a remote desktop facility to eavesdrop on the screen of a student’s computer, including what the webcam sees because she has it running. Don’t you find the potential for misuse just a little bit disturbing?
Protecting yourself
As you might expect I’m extremely careful about all aspects of my computer security, and I believe the likelihood of anyone being able to take remote control of my webcams is very low.
Even so, when they’re not in use my desktop WebCam is turned to face a blank wall and the camera lens on my Netbook is covered by a strip of paper.
Now you might well ask “Why not just disable the webcam”? Good question.
Most webcam software is configured to load ready for use on Windows start up, then you or some appropriate applications software actually starts the webcam running when required. And as I’m sure you can see, therein lies the potential for abuse.
Even if the webcam software is not loaded ready for use during Windows start-up, there is always the possibility that an interloper or some malicious software could initialize it. So the best precaution is to not load the webcam software during the Windows start-up, and also to ensure it can’t see anything “of interest” if it is running, until you want it to. It’s a simple matter to click a menu item or double click an icon to load the software when you need to use it.
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{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
The question in my recieved email anonounces:
“Can your webcam be used against you?”
And I want to respond that, YES !!
couple of years,while trying to fix some computer troubles,found that have a FBI add in ,into the security settings
what? I say my self,what’s this?an FBI P. I . in my pc?
Well ,that was when I touch pc’s for the first time,and as all of you know,curiosly ,everyone in that situation try to see everything in the internet,and i mint everything. Think that was introducing in some illegal web pages ,proposit of the FBI.
Well,I found that, and a plug in for use my webcam for those FBI uses,so from then and today my webcam ,when not in use ,is looking to the wall.It coul be used against anybody,including those peoples watching you porn videos,or simple video games .
I dont want, nobody spying me ,including if my webcam is not in use]
So a good recomendation is that,turn the webcam to the wall if not in use.
I’m already watched constantly by the security cameras at work, when I enter any other business as a customer, and my travels are caught on traffic cameras… I certainly don’t need surveillance in my own home! I try not to be paranoid about such things, but awareness is never a bad thing.
I guess there was an advantage to my school district continually updating their computing equipment a year or two after I graduated to the next school. We never had webcams or teacher stations with remote access to our monitors, but I would not have been comfortable if we did! Schools already invade student’s privacy too often, this is just the next step.