Guess who's watching you through your webcam?

Have you ever felt like you are not alone, like someone is watching you even though you turn around and no one is there? This could be your everyday stalker, but because of technology we are no longer capable of knowing who is watching through our webcams.

On Feb. 11, 2010, Blake Robbins, his family, and several other students at the Lower Merion School District in Pennsylvania filed a suit against their school district for an invasion of their privacy. The school provided their students with new computers to take home in order to have easy access to technology while providing them with the ability to connect to the school at home.

Each computer had a built in webcam, which could be a great tool to help the school find lost computers. However, the students and their families had no idea that the school could access the webcam from the school at any time without permission. Robbins first discovered that the school had been watching him on Nov. 11, 2009 when he got into trouble at school for improper behavior at home. The pictures provided as evidence were from pictures taken via webcam.

When the news came out that the school had been watching Robbins, an investigation was started and the truth was discovered that the school had remote activated the webcams on several students computers close to forty times. In these forty times, some students were exposed and in the process of changing. My question is when did it become acceptable to spy on people because the technology allows it? No one likes a stalker, yet we continue to create and use technology which makes stalking easier.

I think what this school district did was wrong and although it is fair for the school to be able to turn on the webcam to find lost computers, they should have authorization first. If they do not ask permission they should get into trouble for their actions, because it is not only an invasion of privacy, but it could potentially be a very embarrassing situation for the students involved.

I am not naïve enough to say that the school district was the only one who would misuse technology, but I do think it is important to create laws to protect the privacy of the students so something like this does not happen again. We can only hope that this case is resolved in a way that the standards are never questioned again. With this I leave you with the question: who is watching you?