>From - Sat Mar 02 00:57:24 2024
X-BeenThere: tscm-l2006_at_googlegroups.com
Received: by 10.231.50.148 with SMTP id z20ls108009ibf.2.p; Mon, 29 Mar 2010
15:42:05 -0700 (PDT)
Received: by 10.231.143.13 with SMTP id s13mr370208ibu.8.1269902525152;
Mon, 29 Mar 2010 15:42:05 -0700 (PDT)
Received: by 10.231.143.13 with SMTP id s13mr370207ibu.8.1269902525107;
Mon, 29 Mar 2010 15:42:05 -0700 (PDT)
Return-Path: <ber..._at_netaxs.com>
Received: from xsmtp10.mail2web.com (xsmtp10.mail2web.com [168.144.250.180])
by gmr-mx.google.com with ESMTP id 19si638686iwn.6.2010.03.29.15.42.05;
Mon, 29 Mar 2010 15:42:05 -0700 (PDT)
Received-SPF: neutral (google.com: 168.144.250.180 is neither permitted nor denied by best guess record for domain of ber..._at_netaxs.com) client-ip=168.144.250.180;
Authentication-Results: gmr-mx.google.com; spf=neutral (google.com: 168.144.250.180 is neither permitted nor denied by best guess record for domain of ber..._at_netaxs.com) smtp.mail=ber..._at_netaxs.com
Received: from [10.5.41.24] (helo=M2W124.mail2web.com)
by xsmtp10.mail2web.com with smtp (Exim 4.63)
(envelope-from <ber..._at_netaxs.com>)
id 1NwNeX-0000EA-6l; Mon, 29 Mar 2010 18:42:04 -0400
Message-ID: <380-220103129224150939_at_M2W124.mail2web.com>
X-Priority: 3
Reply-To: ber..._at_netaxs.com
X-Originating-IP: 173-145-171-125
X-URL:
http://mail2web.com/
From: "ber..._at_netaxs.com" <ber..._at_netaxs.com>
To: o..._at_2600.com
Subject: U.S. Senator Arlen Specter seeks to cover webcam use under Federal wiretapping statutes
Date: Mon, 29 Mar 2010 18:41:50 -0400
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1
Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable
http://www.philly.com/philly/news/breaking/89404907.html
Specter wants to extend U.S. privacy curbs to Webcam use
By Derrick Nunnally
INQUIRER STAFF WRITER
Mon, Mar. 29, 2010
U.S. Sen. Arlen Specter (D., Pa.) said this morning that the use of Lower
Merion school-issued laptops' cameras for surveillance has inspired him to
write proposed legislation that would extend similar privacy restrictions
for sound recordings under federal wiretap law to pictures and video
captured by cameras.
"A picture can be just as invasive on privacy as a statement," Specter said
after conducting a Senate subcommittee hearing on technology and privacy in
the James A. Byrne Federal Courthouse in Philadelphia.
Specter, who was the only senator at the hearing of the crime and justice
subcommittee of the Senate's judiciary committee, quizzed a panel of law
and technology experts on the implications of Lower Merion School
District's remote surveillance of student laptops via Web cam. The school
district is fighting a lawsuit filed by the family of Harriton High School
student Blake Robbins over the Web cams' usage, which Specter and others
alluded to repeatedly in the hearing.
"The incident raises a question as to whether the law has kept up with
technology," Specter said.
The experts largely agreed, noting in their testimony that the vast
expansions of electronic communications and the number of video cameras -=
=20
particularly on cell phones - since privacy laws were written.
Federal wiretap law restricts how telephone and in-person conversations can
be recorded when the speaker can reasonably expect privacy, but no such law
governs visual images. Thus the remote use of a laptop camera to take a
picture of a school-issued computer's user at home, for example, would not
appear to break a federal law as long as no sound recording was made as
well, Specter said.
"It is clear that the gap needs to be closed," said law professor Fred H.
Cate of Indiana University. "It is less clear what exactly needs to be
done."
He and others at the hearing said a law would have to take into account
legitimate uses of cameras, such as building security and monitoring of
public spaces.
At Specter's invitation, Lower Merion parent Bob Wegbreit, a Narberth
borough councilman, joined the panel mid-hearing and endorsed the idea of a
new law for photographic privacy rights. "Then we would all know where
everything stands," Wegbreit said.
No one from the school district testified.
Specter did not say when he would be ready to introduce such legislation.
Contact staff writer Derrick Nunnally at 610-313-8212 or
dnun..._at_phillynews.com.
--------------------------------------------------------------------
myhosting.com - Premium Microsoft=AE Windows=AE and Linux web and applicati=
on
hosting -
http://link.myhosting.com/myhosting
Received on Sat Mar 02 2024 - 00:57:24 CST