{"id":365886,"date":"2010-02-26T08:57:07","date_gmt":"2010-02-26T13:57:07","guid":{"rendered":"Gizmodo-5480962"},"modified":"2010-02-26T08:57:07","modified_gmt":"2010-02-26T13:57:07","slug":"ny-vice-principal-brags-about-schools-laptop-spying-to-pbs-privacy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/365886","title":{"rendered":"NY Vice-Principal Brags About School&#8217;s Laptop Spying to PBS [Privacy]"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><script type=\"text\/javascript\" src=\"http:\/\/www.pbs.org\/wgbh\/pages\/frontline\/js\/pap\/embed.js?frol02n28adq996\">\n<\/script>Apparently using laptop webcams to spy on students isn&#8217;t an <a href=\"http:\/\/gizmodo.com\/5474614\/school-spies-students-through-their-laptop-cameras\">isolated problem<\/a>. An assistant principal in the Bronx recently not only bragged about doing just that to PBS&mdash;he demonstrated it live. Head&#8217;s up: this gets real creepy.<br \/>\n<br clear=\"all\"><\/p>\n<p><a class=\"autolink\" title=\"Click here to read more posts tagged #danackerman\" href=\"http:\/\/gizmodo.com\/tag\/danackerman\/\">Dan Ackerman<\/a> is an administrator at Intermediate School 339, in the Bronx, and he appeared in a <a href=\"http:\/\/www.pbs.org\/wgbh\/pages\/frontline\/digitalnation\/learning\/schools\/how-google-saved-a-school.html?play\"><em>Frontline<\/em> segment<\/a> two weeks ago to demonstrate how they monitor their students&#8217; computer usage. The uncomfortable part of the segment, in which he accesses the webcams of various unknowing middle schoolers, starts at 4:36.<\/p>\n<p>Not only is this clearly a privacy violation on the face of it, Ackerman&#8217;s attitude gives me the willies:<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>&#8220;A lot of kids are just on it to check their hair, check their make-up: the girls&#8230; They don&#8217;t even realize that we are watching. I always like to mess with them and take a picture.&#8221;<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>Also weird: that no one at <em>Frontline<\/em> thought to raise this as an issue.<\/p>\n<p>But I guess the bigger lesson here, kids, is that all those paranoid fantasies you like to indulge in are actually true. Big Brother <em>is<\/em> watching, and he&#8217;s got an unkempt goatee.<\/p>\n<p><strong>UPDATE:<\/strong> Just to clarify, this situation isn&#8217;t identical to the previous <a href=\"http:\/\/gizmodo.com\/5474614\/school-spies-students-through-their-laptop-cameras\">webcam spying incident in Philadelphia<\/a> (these laptops are used only in the school, and the webcam is accessed when the students have an application like Photo Booth open). That doesn&#8217;t make it right! It&#8217;s still a privacy violation no matter where it takes place, and Ackerman&#8217;s attitude and comments are still disturbing at best. [<a href=\"http:\/\/www.pbs.org\/wgbh\/pages\/frontline\/digitalnation\/learning\/schools\/how-google-saved-a-school.html?play\">PBS<\/a> via <a href=\"http:\/\/www.boingboing.net\/2010\/02\/25\/school-administrator.html?utm_source=feedburner&#038;utm_medium=feed&#038;utm_campaign=Feed%3A+boingboing%2FiBag+%28Boing+Boing%29\">BoingBoing<\/a>]<\/p>\n<p><br clear=\"both\" style=\"clear: both;\"\/><br \/>\n<br clear=\"both\" style=\"clear: both;\"\/><br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/ads.pheedo.com\/click.phdo?s=797df70fa661134837c24fc02e3c02e4&#038;p=1\"><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"\" style=\"border: 0;\" border=\"0\" src=\"http:\/\/ads.pheedo.com\/img.phdo?s=797df70fa661134837c24fc02e3c02e4&#038;p=1\"\/><\/a><br \/>\n<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"\" height=\"0\" width=\"0\" border=\"0\" style=\"display:none\" src=\"http:\/\/a.rfihub.com\/eus.gif?eui=2226\"\/><\/p>\n<div class=\"feedflare\">\n<a href=\"http:\/\/feeds.gawker.com\/~ff\/gizmodo\/full?a=rMf3CMxaHeE:90ZAi_jofBU:H0mrP-F8Qgo\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/feeds.feedburner.com\/~ff\/gizmodo\/full?d=H0mrP-F8Qgo\" border=\"0\"><\/img><\/a> <a href=\"http:\/\/feeds.gawker.com\/~ff\/gizmodo\/full?a=rMf3CMxaHeE:90ZAi_jofBU:yIl2AUoC8zA\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/feeds.feedburner.com\/~ff\/gizmodo\/full?d=yIl2AUoC8zA\" border=\"0\"><\/img><\/a> <a href=\"http:\/\/feeds.gawker.com\/~ff\/gizmodo\/full?a=rMf3CMxaHeE:90ZAi_jofBU:D7DqB2pKExk\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/feeds.feedburner.com\/~ff\/gizmodo\/full?i=rMf3CMxaHeE:90ZAi_jofBU:D7DqB2pKExk\" border=\"0\"><\/img><\/a> <a href=\"http:\/\/feeds.gawker.com\/~ff\/gizmodo\/full?a=rMf3CMxaHeE:90ZAi_jofBU:V_sGLiPBpWU\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/feeds.feedburner.com\/~ff\/gizmodo\/full?i=rMf3CMxaHeE:90ZAi_jofBU:V_sGLiPBpWU\" border=\"0\"><\/img><\/a>\n<\/div>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/feeds.feedburner.com\/~r\/gizmodo\/full\/~4\/rMf3CMxaHeE\" height=\"1\" width=\"1\"\/><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Apparently using laptop webcams to spy on students isn&#8217;t an isolated problem. An assistant principal in the Bronx recently not only bragged about doing just that to PBS&mdash;he demonstrated it live. Head&#8217;s up: this gets real creepy. Dan Ackerman is an administrator at Intermediate School 339, in the Bronx, and he appeared in a Frontline [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5460,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-365886","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/365886","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5460"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=365886"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/365886\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=365886"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=365886"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=365886"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}