"The Legal Implications of Surveillance Cameras
District administrators need to know the law and make these policies clear.
By:
Amy M. Steketee
District Administration, February 2012
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The nature of school security has changed dramatically over the last decade. Schools employ various measures, from metal detectors to identification badges to drug testing, to promote the safety and security of staff and students. One of the increasingly prevalent measures is the use of security cameras. In fact, the U.S. Department of Education reported that more than half of all public schools used security cameras during the 2007-2008 school year to monitor students, a 30 percent increase over eight years prior.
While security cameras can be useful in addressing and deterring violence and other misconduct, they also raise several legal issues that can leave school administrators in a quandary. Does the use of surveillance cameras to capture images violate a student or staff member's right of privacy? If the images captured on a surveillance recording are of a student violating school rules, may district administrators use the recording in a disciplinary proceeding? If so, are parents of the accused student entitled to review the footage?
What about parents of other students whose images are captured on the recording? How should schools handle inquiries from media about surveillance footage? Can administrators use surveillance cameras to monitor staff? I outline the overriding legal principles, common traps for the unwary and practical considerations.
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Legal Principles
Fourth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. The Fourth Amendment prohibits the government, including public schools, from conducting unreasonable searches or seizures. Courts have generally held, however, that what an individual knowingly exposes in plain view to the public will not trigger Fourth Amendment protection because no search has occurred. Someone who is videotaped in public has n
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The app, which allows users to share mobile-phone photos with friends without posting them publicly, was launched in the US this week.
The Irish data regulator said that users must be given a choice about whether they want it, with an opt-in.
There is currently no timetable for such a feature, said Facebook.
Richard Allen, Facebook's head of policy in Europe said: "We don't have an opt-in mechanism so it is turned off until we develop one."
Moments arranges the photos on someone's mobile phone into groups, based on when they were taken. The facial recognition technology can identify Facebook friends to whom users can then forward the photos.
Combining data
The social network is taking facial recognition very seriously and announced earlier this year that its DeepFace AI system was powerful enough to identify users with a 97.25% level of accuracy.
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In 2010, Facebook rolled out facial recognition technology to identify people in photos but, two years later, it was forced to withdraw the technology from Europe, after Ireland's data protection commission highlighted privacy issues.
At the time, the privacy commissioner of Canada said: "Of significant privacy concern is the fact that Facebook has the ability to combine facial biometric data with extensive information about users, including biographic data, location data, and associations with friends."
The system, which is increasingly used by technology and other firms, is the subject of debate in the US too.
Recent talks between privacy organisations and government agencies aimed at creating a code of conduct around facial recognition technology broke down after they failed to reach agreement.
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Facebook has dozens of toggles for privacy settings on its service, and a privacy policy longer than the US Constitution. And while many users of the service know that they're sharing information with their friends and associates, they may be surprised to find out just exactly what they're sharing, and with what groups of people. New programs that offer to tie social media integration into outside web sites offer an ever-more social experience, but they also expose even more of your online activities to social media service providers and advertisers. Is it getting too hard to keep hold of our privacy online?
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