Law firm blames ignorant IT department

A third-party investigation has largely downplayed accusations of misconduct aimed at a Philadelphia school district that spied on students using MacBooks provided on loan. Although the investigation has been labeled as "independent," it was completed by a law firm, Ballard Spahr, which was directly hired by the Lower Merion School District.

The school district is currently the target of an ongoing lawsuit filed on behalf of a student who was allegedly reprimanded by an assistant principal over webcam images showing inappropriate behavior at the student's home. The incident brought attention to the school's tracking system, which appeared to have been enabled in many situations that did not involve a stolen device.

Attorneys from Ballard Spahr suggest the school faculty were not actually spying on the students. The denial contradicts several aspects of the case, including over 58,000 screenshots and webcam captures that were loaded onto servers.

The law firm carefully dances around accusations that the faculty accessed the database of images even when students were not accused of stealing the MacBooks. The report claims there is "no evidence" that the TheftTrack feature was used to spy on students. Several school employees had referred to the images as a "soap opera," however. Another staff member replied "I know, I love it!"

Although the report dismisses the spying allegations, it does point out several mistakes in the school's implementation and utilization of the tracking system. The district was criticized for failing to disclose the TheftTrack system in guidelines that parents were required to sign. Ballard Spahr also notes that the administration did not adopt and enforce a comprehensive set of policies regarding how the tracking software should be used.

The tracking system was said to have been left activated on 12 notebooks even after the devices were recovered. Leaving the system enabled inflated the number of images, accounting for 87 percent of the stored content, according to the report.

Ballard Spahr's observations place the blame on general ignorance of school administrators and staffers. The attorneys suggest there is "no evidence" that the school board or top-level administrators "knew how TheftTrack worked or understood that it could collect large quantities of webcam photographs or screenshots from unsuspecting students and their laptops."

Following widespread media coverage and the civil lawsuit, the school district disabled the tracking system. The "independent" report and halt of tracking activities may not protect the district against legal action, however. The lawsuit accuses the district of violating privacy and wiretapping mandates. It is unclear if the legal battle will develop into a class-action proceeding.

By Electronista Staff