Laptop Privacy?
By laglen
@laglen (19759)
United States
March 29, 2010 10:25am CST
PHILADELPHIA (AP) -- An electronic privacy expert is urging Congress to update wiretap laws to include secret video surveillance as a Senate subcommittee ponders the issue in Philadelphia.
Monday's field hearing is being led by U.S. Sen. Arlen Specter, D-Pa. It comes amid a lawsuit that accuses a Pennsylvania school district of spying on students through webcams on school-issued laptops. Lower Merion school officials say they were only trying to locate missing computers.
Kevin Bankston of the Electronic Frontier Foundation is scheduled to testify. Bankston says wiretap laws should include videotaped surveillance the same way they protect secret audio recordings.
No one involved in the Lower Merion lawsuit is expected to testify.
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Senate-hearing-in-Philly-apf-177508769.html?x=0&.v=2
I think this is wrong and I think the school was wrong. But for the awful Patriot Act, we should be able to expect privacy rights.
Those who would give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.
Benjamin Franklin,
4 responses
@spalladino (17891)
• United States
30 Mar 10
If wiretap laws were extended to include secret video surveillance how many real criminals would walk away scott free? I'm not saying that I agree with the actions of the school in this case...they should have informed the students of their ability to observe if necessary...but my concern is removing a parent's and a homeowner's ability to use video surveillance via a nanny cam or home computer system for the protection of their child[ren] and their property. How many abuses of young children have been identified and stopped in this way and how many home invasions have also been thwarted? If the videos were not permitted to be used as evidence, how would these people be prosecuted?
1 person likes this
@spalladino (17891)
• United States
30 Mar 10
I would have been okay with it if it had been included in something in writing that the parents agreed to. To look at minors without their or their parents' knowledge or consent is worse than an invasion of privacy in my opinion.
@Sir_bobby88 (8231)
• Singapore
29 Mar 10
yea i also think that we should have our own privacy with laptop .
