School Snooping Kay Shah

School Snooping
Absolute Power Corrupts Absolutely

Thursday, May 8, 2014 BTT101 Period II




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School Snooping Kay Shah



Executive Summary 3
What is 'Computer Ethics' in This Context? 3
Effects 4
New Students 4
Transitional Students 6
Privacy 8
Case Study 9
Analysis 10
Conclusion 11
Bibliography 12
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School Snooping Kay Shah
Executive Summary

The number of teachers and administrators using computer tracking software is
on the rise. There are many issues with tracking software, and many believe that it is
wrong to have the ability to track students' screens and keystrokes. There are many
examples of schools taking this too far, and lawsuits are being led. After extensive
research, studies have shown that Well, you have to read the entire thing anyway. So
enjoy.

What is 'Computer Ethics' in This Context?

The denition of 'Computer Ethics' is "a set of moral principles that govern the
behaviour of a group or individual. Therefore, computer ethics is set of moral principles that
regulate the use of computers. Some common issues of computer ethics include intellectual
property rights (such as copyrighted electronic content), privacy concerns, and how computers
affect society." This means that the use of computers should be self-regulated and the
power shouldn't be abused, such as for the use of copyrighted work, and electronically
stealing property. This also means that others with the power to remotely track every
movement that a person makes should not abuse this power and that the monitoring
should be regulated with a set of principles that are created and followed in order to
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maintain the integrity of the person using the technology as well as the technology
itself. If this is not possible, then the monitoring shouldnt happen at all.


Effects

The effects of computer monitor tracking are not constructive, for both predator
and prey. The scope of the effects on the prey varies. Some may say that there are
varying effects. On a student (or class) that has been monitored from the rst day of
computer use, here are some of the effects:
New Students
Students feel stied in the connes of the day to day tasks, whether it is to a
certain set of applications or even limiting the use of resources within an application.
Most people that excel in the eld of computers are the ones that push the limits, and to
quote the Privacy Commissioner of Canada: What happens in the workplace including
whether privacy is respected can have a profound effect on employees sense of dignity, their
sense of freedom, and their sense of autonomy. Continual surveillance is dehumanizing. It does
not help create an enthusiastic workforce. And I wouldnt even be surprised if it affects
productivity in a negative way. So there, the person in charge of privacy in the country is
saying that it is not good for the morale of a workforce.
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Second, it is useless to limit creativity. It is something that teachers mark, hence
the 'initiative' learning skill. Teachers want students to go beyond the limits, yet they are
constantly watching, suspiciously, and no one likes making mistakes and trying new
things with a superior constantly watching them. Also, for a person that is relatively
new to computers, being tracked takes away the integrity and does give a realistic
experience of what using a computer is like, somewhat like always driving with a
parent with their one hand on the steering wheel at all times. You never learn to be
independent.

Finally, it creates a reliance and addiction to the software. Many new students
may experience the 'protective barrier' of tracking software, and when faced with
inappropriate content, they rely on a third party to deal with the problem and do not
have the ability to deal with the problem, as the students also lack the ability to deal
with a problem of this sort outside of computer class.

To recap, computer tracking software is seen to stie creativity in students being
tracked from the rst day, along with creating a reliance and addiction to a third party
dealing with problems.

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Transitional Students
Transitional students are students that were not tracked for a period of time, and
then tracking software was implemented. This causes a few similar problems, and a
couple new ones.

First, the creativity. Many people can start off with a totally unrecognizable
document, and with work, turn it into the best piece of work the teacher has ever seen.
The truth is, people do not like to be tracked when creating masterpieces. This includes
screen monitoring. The fact that the surprise on a teachers face is gone when handing a
paper in is something that many people dislike. Somewhat like watching ve minute
parts of a movie every day, then after two weeks, you see the entire movie. The
excitement is gone. This has proven to drop the quality of the students work. Is this the
price to pay for doing what is considered right by the grown ups?

Second, the biggest effect: rebellion. No one likes being constantly watched, and
in this case, rebellious acts have been noticed by teachers who implement tracking
software. Students will act up, will try to nd ways to spoof or disable the software, and
this can easily lead to hacking and more dangerous and illegal acts of rebellion.

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To delve into the world of a teenage brain is a complicated matter. Teenagers feel
they are being punished for a crime they didnt commit, and now that the harm is done,
they have nothing to lose. Rebellious acts can start out with:
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using Notepad to send the teacher monitoring ip offs.
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Deliberately going on sites and programs that are off limits.
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nding ways to crash the computer.
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playing pranks on the teacher.
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trying to covertly chat with other students.

They can evolve into:
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Attempts to disable the software.
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Dedicated Denial of Access (DDoA) on a teachers computer.
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More covert chat.
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Extreme Pranks
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Setting up other students & creating dissent.
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Petitioning for alternatives.
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Entering illegal activities & hacking schemes.
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installing spoong and backdoor software from USB drives
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Personal attacks on teachers social media.
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Parent intervention.
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Remotely shutting down and disabling computers around the school.
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Generally making life hard for the teacher.


As you can see, nothing good can come out of tracking students. The students do
not appreciate the help,' and instead see it as a way for adults to further control their
lives.

Privacy

Without a doubt, screen tracking and keylogging software programs are an
invasion of privacy. Many will argue that it is warranted, some will say this is not. On a
device that an institution (school, etc.) owns and is giving to employees, the institution
is allowed to track all activity on the device, according to the Ofce of the Privacy
Administrator, Organizations must except in a few limited circumstances have an
employees consent before collecting, using or disclosing personal information. This includes
schools. Also, Even with consent, organizations must limit collection, use and disclosure of
personal information to purposes that a reasonable person would consider appropriate in the
circumstances. This is often the key issue we consider in our investigations related to workplace
surveillance. This plays into the next topic our rst case study.
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Case Study

The chosen case study is between the Lower Merion School District, and two
students, Blake Robbin and Jalil Hasan, who sued parallel cases against the school
district. In the district, students had been given school issued Laptops. The District
admitted it had deliberately failed to tell students and parents that the computers were
capable of secretly taking pictures via the webcam, along with monitoring all screen
activity and riing through contacts. Upon receiving the laptops, the students had been
informed that the webcams and any application using them had been disabled, and the
screen monitoring had not been mentioned at all. Thinking this, many students would
leave the lid of their computers open and would leave it on their desks, or kitchen
counters. Secretly, using a program then known as 'Theft Track,' the school district was
taking pictures via the webcam. One student, Blake Robbin, was chosen to be watched
at all times.

The school district had started covertly taking pictures of Blake. "Over the next
15 days, the school district captured at least 210 webcam photos and 218 screenshots.
One day, Blake was called down to the ofce for allegedly dealing drugs. When Blake
enquired how they were seeing this, the principal showed pictures of Blake with white
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capsules, which Blake and his family claimed were Mikes & Ikes. The school district
dropped the consequences when the parents led complaints, but the parents went
further, and sued the school and the school district. On the stands, many key players
admitted to installing and activating the software, others to monitoring, and others to
lying to students and parents, both before and during the lawsuit.
The family and a watchdog privacy foundation won with a settlement, and the
school district was forced to delete the thousands of pictures it had taken and
uninstalling the software, along with monetary compensation.

Many would say that that was enough shame for one time, but not to this school
district. During the Robbins lawsuit, another family led a parallel suite against the
school district.

Jalil Hasan was subjected to similar monitoring, and pictures of his parents and
siblings had been taken by the laptops. A similar lawsuit was led, and the same judge
that ruled the Robbins case ruled for the family, and monetary compensation was given
by the school district.

Analysis

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This is a shocking case, showing that people trusted with families' free and open
education were instead covertly taking pictures, looking at them, and even outright
lying when confronted about the area. Many students and even parents turned
rebellious, and the districts desirability rating plummeted. This incident is only one of
dozens where a code of ethics is broken, mainly by the people in charge of creating the
code in the rst place. This may be extreme, but it is realistic and has happened, and
when the education sector thinks it is better than everyone else, sometimes taxpayers
have to put a stop to these things. Also, Blakes sister also sued, and won.

Conclusion

In a school and professional setting, individuals, organizations, and government
sectors all agree that while the monitoring of employees is still legal, it doesnt benet
anyone, and is not ethical. The moral boundaries are pushed everyday, and that is not
good. Also, dont underestimate the creativity of teenagers. !





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Bibliography

Hill, Kashmir. "Lower Merion School District and Blake Robbins Reach a Settlement in
Spycamgate." Forbes.com. Forbes, 10 Nov. 2010. Web. 10 May 2014.
Stoddart, Jennifer. Finding the Right Workplace Privacy Balance. PowerPoint
Presentation. November 30th, 2006.
Walsh, Thomas J. "Laptop Lawsuit Redux: Robbins Family Sues School District Again."
Ardmore-Merion-Windwood Patch. Planck LLC, 08 Dec. 2011. Web. 12 May 2014.
LOWER MERION SCHOOL DISTRICT v. BLAKE J. ROBBINS. United States District
Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania. 23 Feb. 2010. Print.
Miller, Caroline. "Spying School District Has Thousands of Secret Pix of Kids: Lawsuit."
Newser. Newser LLC, 19 Apr. 2010. Web. 12 May 2014.

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