NEWS

Teacher Can Sue For Being Spied On While Getting Naked On Stolen Laptop

By Carlton Purvis
09/06/2011 -

Absolute had previously requested a summary judgment arguing that past rulings say a person doesn’t have a reasonable expectation of privacy when using stolen property. The company also argues that the rights of a user of stolen property can never trump the rights of a legal owner of the property. But U.S. District judge Walter Rice thought it would be best to let a jury decide.

“Although the Absolute Defendant may have had a noble purpose, to assist the school district in recovering its stolen laptop, a reasonable jury could find that they crossed an impermissible boundary when they intercepted Plaintiffs’ instant messages and webcam communications. A reasonable jury could also find that such conduct would cause a person of ordinary sensibilities to suffer shame and humiliation. For these reasons, the Court overrules the Absolute Defendants’ Motion for Summary Judgment on this claim,” Rice wrote in his decision.

In June, Absolute Software announced it had located it 20,000th computer. More than 3,800 of these recoveries have been on college campuses and in K-12 school districts.

photo by edenpictures from flickr
 

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Comments

crossing the line

Submitted by Rachey on Wed, 09/07/2011 - 20:38.

 That's really crossing the line, in my opinion. However, I always advise my clients to be judicious about what they do over webcam. Less tech-savvy clients don't know how to detect that things are being monitored. Furthermore, there are some video chat programs that have built-in recorders Video Chat Rounds on Facebook is just the latest example - ). You can never be too careful over webcam, especially if you might be involved in divorce proceedings. ;)

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