Lower Merion, PA school district denouement nears: report denies spying charges

The long, intense saga over in Lower Merion, Pennsylvania -- in which lawsuits were filed alleging that the school district used students' laptops to spy on them -- may be nearing its end. The class action suit was filed back in February claiming that the school district had made use of "unauthorized, inappropriate and indiscriminate remote activation" of webcams in laptops issued to students," with the school countering that it had some security features that allowed the laptops to be tracked in case of loss or theft, but that those features hadn't been used to track students in any way. The case got more complicated of course, with webcam usage allegations, as well as evidence that plenty of photos had been captured by the spy-crazy school district. Well, now an attorney hired by the school district says a report's been released that says there is no evidence of spying on the part of the school district, after all. It's all pretty boring after all the hubbub, and it turns out to be likely that the school was just tracking the laptop (which wasn't actually a school-issued laptop, but a loaner given to a student while his actual unit was repaired) in order to get it back over outstanding insurance fees. Nothing too exciting here, but if you're interested in the rest of the story, hit up those source links.