If you thought the soap opera involving Lower Merion School District’s “webcamgate” was over, guess again. Reuben Kramer reports that another lawsuit has been filed by another student whose images were captured when the webcam on his district-provided laptop was remotely activated:
Plaintiff Joshua Levin’s suit describes an ominous night when he and his family discovered the surveillance.
[…]
Levin says his parents subsequently received a letter from the district around June 2010, advising them that “4,404 webcam photographs and 3,978 screenshots” were remotely captured by the district from the laptop he was issued.
The letter then instructed Levin that if he wanted to view the fruits of the district’s surveillance, he’d have a one-hour window on a specific day in June to do so at a federal courthouse, according to the suit.
Levin says he accepted the offer, “and was shocked, humiliated and severely emotionally distressed at what he saw.”
His attorney, Norman Perlberger of Bala Cynwyd, Pa., did not immediately respond to a call requesting clarification, although the suit claims that many images captured by the laptops may have depicted minors and their parents “in compromising or embarrassing positions,” including in “various stages of dress or undress.”
Read more on Courthouse News, where they have also uploaded the complaint filed Monday in District Court for Eastern District in Pennsylvania. The lawsuit alleges violations of ECPA, SCA, CFAA, and violations of privacy under the Fourth Amendment.