School admins getting onto user Hotmail?

[Ascot]

Right someone i know's school has apparently managed to see her hotmail account, print her emails off and press charges to her.

So now the school has informed her parents about this in relation to the kind of emails in the inbox

I'm asking is how can the school get onto her account without her actually giving them the login info or permission to. She hasn't left her account on for them to sneak up and do it.

Is this even legal to access her Hotmail private account without permission and no school contract to say they can?

 

[westcoaster]

when at college the admin team could log you out, close webpages, and write messages to you on the screen so is easy for them to do , dont know about the data protection act though and what it covers.

 

[Tom]

Don't think it's legal but it's possible and this is how:

At a school - all traffic goes through a proxy in order to filter data. In this case the proxy can be used to 'catch' usernames and passwords in order to allow access to accounts by teachers and members of the IT staff.

However - this may well be a breach of the computer misuse act so legality is odd to say the least ... although it does depend on what the contents of the emails were and whether they were sent on school premises.

Hopes that explains things Mark.

Tom

 

[Nick W]

No one should ever send an unencrypted email that they wouldn't mind the whole world reading. The system is by no means private.

 

[Ascot]

cheers lads,

yes the emails was sent in school time, no they are not school related, but not on a school related email account. (Hotmail for this example)

They however had to somehow log in to her account or the way Tom said as they did it without her knowing or without her logged on, plus with emails dated last thursday only reported today.

 

[Gizmogle]

I remember at our school, the teachers had this thing where they could see all of our screens and even take control over them. The teacher could have easily screen shotted the emails.

Probably not legal though, no.

 

[Tom]

It could have been they disabled one of her log outs and simply retrieved the cookie from her session also - but that would also be a violation....

 

[westcoaster]

could it be that by logging on you abide by there terms and conditions, and that they have the right to check what your doing to make sure its not adult material/chat/games

 

[thomasgholmes]

I think this is tottaly wrong.
Probably breach of the data protection act.

 

[Mushroom]

I think this is tottaly wrong.
Probably breach of the data protection act.

It doesnt come under the Data Protection act as far far as im aware, it comes more under the Computer Missuse Act

 

[Daniel]

Computer misuse offences

1 Unauthorised access to computer material

(1) A person is guilty of an offence if—

(a) he causes a computer to perform any function with intent to secure access to any program or data held in any computer;

(b) the access he intends to secure is unauthorised; and

(c) he knows at the time when he causes the computer to perform the function that that is the case.

 

[me123]

Don't know the full story or the law very well, but that's an invasion of the person's privacy. Unless this took place on a school computer, this is in my humble opinion, immoral behaviour on the part of the school.

 

[Nathan]

Don't think it's legal but it's possible and this is how:

At a school - all traffic goes through a proxy in order to filter data. In this case the proxy can be used to 'catch' usernames and passwords in order to allow access to accounts by teachers and members of the IT staff.

So just use 'unfilter.proxy...' thats what i do

 

[merseytrains]

Our school has banned Hotmail plus almost the entire internet, even parts of BBC Bitewise are banned

Teachers who confiscate phones/food do tend to read your texts/eat your food which is surely not allowed, and could be seen as theft and not confiscation in some cases?

 

[Bonemaster]

All perfectly legal I am afraid, but they must tell you, have a policy and a reason to do so, however this maybe talked around by something as simple as to keep bandwidth down. Covert monitoring is starting to get onto very dodgy ground i.e. they must have reasonable suspicion that you are committing a criminal act.

There has been very few challenges in this area of the data protection act that it refers to as most similar cases have settled before a legal ruling has taken place

I have to avoid almost every site at work except the bbc due to the kind of snooping that they are entitled to do.

If the person believes they have been caught by covert tactics they should first challenge the school, then if they don't answer it unsatisfactorily write to the information commisioner

 

[Bighat]

Our school has banned Hotmail plus almost the entire internet, even parts of BBC Bitewise are banned

Teachers who confiscate phones/food do tend to read your texts/eat your food which is surely not allowed, and could be seen as theft and not confiscation in some cases?

You are partly correct. If a phone is confiscated at school (for example, school rules forbid you bringing them to school), the school must keep it in a secure place, and return it to you at the earliest possible time, for example at the end of the school day.

Accessing ANY information from the phone is EXPRESSLY FORBIDDEN, and is covered by the 1996 Education Information Act of 2006. With regards to foodstuffs, this CAN be destroyed (not sure if 'eating' it counts) for Health and Safety reasons.

The only proviso concerning information on phones, names, addresses, photos, videos, texts etc. is where the information is require if a more serious offence is being investigated (such as phone or cyber bullying), but staff are recommended to call the police and hand the phone over to them as 'evidence'.

 

[Bonemaster]

You are partly correct. If a phone is confiscated at school (for example, school rules forbid you bringing them to school), the school must keep it in a secure place, and return it to you at the earliest possible time, for example at the end of the school day.

Accessing ANY information from the phone is EXPRESSLY FORBIDDEN, and is covered by the 1996 Education Information Act of 2006. With regards to foodstuffs, this CAN be destroyed (not sure if 'eating' it counts) for Health and Safety reasons.

The only proviso concerning information on phones, names, addresses, photos, videos, texts etc. is where the information is require if a more serious offence is being investigated (such as phone or cyber bullying), but staff are recommended to call the police and hand the phone over to them as 'evidence'.

A bit of a misunderstood view there the confiscation of the phone was covered in the Education and Inspections Act 2006, however the act did not state what a reasonable length of time for a confiscation is, and took all liability for the item away from the teacher, so in fact the teacher could chuck it in the bin and would not be liable in any way. You may find this article useful http://www.teachingexpertise.com/articles/confiscation-and-use-of-force-power-to-the-teacher-1915

Proving that someone has looked at your messages is exceptionally hard considering that teachers have the legal right of confiscation, it is however illegal should they do it.

 

[djw1981]

Most school prospectuses have an IT policy, which will give the school the right to monitor internet communications, such as emails, mostly due to the risks of grooming etc. This page is normally ignored by most people when they see it as an IT policy sounds boring.

My Uni one states that i cannot use a Uni PC for personal internet use if it affects others who are trying to use it for education (i.e. if I am looking at this site and a dozen people need to print essays I can be told to logoff and leave the PC for them.

Child protection supercedes data protection in all cases, and all the school need to say is that they were worried for her safety / or risk of getting into danger and took appropriate action.


Such 'risk' can include a 15 year old girl arranging to meet a boyfriend over 16, if the school suspect they are likely to have ***, since this is a criminal offence. Hardly the most major crime in the world, but still grounds for such action, under child protection legislation.

 

[yorkie]

They have, almost certainly, not logged into her Hotmail account. They can, instead, see everything that appears on her screen. These days this is often logged automatically by a program such as Securus, which logs suspicious activity by taking screenshots. These screenshots can then be printed off and passed to parents.

It's not an invasion of privacy if they are logging what happens on school computers, as the school's policy almost certainly says things like "use of the internet should be supervised" and that "internet use is monitored", etc.
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---

I remember at our school, the teachers had this thing where they could see all of our screens and even take control over them. The teacher could have easily screen shotted the emails.

Probably not legal though, no.

Yes, it is legal. It happens in a lot of workplaces/schools.

 

[Ascot]

The mother has now got the emails via the post, no police action and no real action from the mother.

They have somehow logged in them self using her password (and got it somehow) then printed it all off.

Surely this isn't on?

 

[Daniel]

May I ask, what were these e-mails about?

I'd say it more goes down to moral issues... if it shows her arranging to meet a stranger, for example, I can see sense in doing it... but if it's just chat or something, then I don't really see the point in the violation of privacy...

 

[Ascot]

May I ask, what were these e-mails about?

I'd say it more goes down to moral issues... if it shows her arranging to meet a stranger, for example, I can see sense in doing it... but if it's just chat or something, then I don't really see the point in the violation of privacy...

Hell no nothing like that, just a slightly kinkified conversation between bf and gf.

 

[Tom]

From what I can see the school were slightly worried about how the conversation could have possibly developed.

However if the mother doesn't wish to take further action then it's really down to how serious the school think it could be.

 

[First ScotRail]

Our school has banned Hotmail plus almost the entire internet, even parts of BBC Bitewise are banned

Thats what Hide Behind and Block No More are for! hehe!

 

[djw1981]

The school probably don't a) know the BF the way the mother does; b) know the ages of the respective parties; c) have to abide by the law. kinky conversations between under 16's will worry the school (child protection etc) but the mother maybe happy for her daughter to be having *** under 16.

It could also be that the emails have been caught in a profanity / obscenity filter on the school network. Since the school IT policy bans looking at certain sites the school will have a right to check all sites containing that word.

 

[theblackwatch]

The mother has now got the emails via the post, no police action and no real action from the mother.

They have somehow logged in them self using her password (and got it somehow) then printed it all off.

Surely this isn't on?

I presume you hadn't read the message just above yours - the school wold not need to log on to view this material.

 

[Ascot]

I presume you hadn't read the message just above yours - the school wold not need to log on to view this material.

Have done now

Cheers lads makes perfect sence now anyway.

 

[djw1981]

Your ISP can also technically monitor your traffic / read emails. If you want everything you do to be secure and un-seen (except by GCHQ and Fylingdales, then you need a direct net conenction.

Even then Fylingdales has been used for industrial espionage by the US Government. Hence why companies who write encryption software for use commercially have (by law) to give a copy to UK government (for 'National Security' reasons) who then share it with the American base at Fylingdales.

 

[me123]

First point: Kinky conversations and sexual relationships between 16 year olds are perfectly legal, so it should be able to continue without intervention UNLESS they were (ab)using school internet access to do so, which is a different matter altogether.

My school has blocked off many websites. Youtube, myspace, bebo, MSN and other things with passwords and/or schopping facilities are all blocked. The school PCs are to be used for research only. Fair enough. They spyware all users, again fair enough to prevent them from downloading illegal stuff. Fair enough. And because access to myspace etc is blocked, tthey can't use your password.

Although, I believe a school somewhere in America told pupils that they cannot use myspace even in their own time. Which is morally wrong IMO because it's their life. In order to do this, the school downloaded spyware onto pupils PCs (via the school website with homeworl info on it), and closed all accounts created and informed parents. This is pathetic, probably illegal and definately immoral.

I the case of kinky conversations, the pupil was breaking school rules if and only if that conversation was continued on a school computer. If they were using the e-mail for research purposes in addition to kinky chats which were all conducted in their own time, the school should not have acted upon this UNLESS the conversation in question posed a risk to their pupil.

 

[djw1981]

How does the school know how old the people involved are? In this age of internet grooming, children meeting complete strangers etc, the school would be acting in the interests of child protection. As a friend of mine once put it, assume that all emails are being read by your boss, teacher, parents, or the Government.

First point: Kinky conversations and sexual relationships between 16 year olds are perfectly legal, so it should be able to continue without intervention UNLESS they were (ab)using school internet access to do so, which is a different matter altogether.

My school has blocked off many websites. Youtube, myspace, bebo, MSN and other things with passwords and/or schopping facilities are all blocked. The school PCs are to be used for research only. Fair enough. They spyware all users, again fair enough to prevent them from downloading illegal stuff. Fair enough. And because access to myspace etc is blocked, tthey can't use your password.

Although, I believe a school somewhere in America told pupils that they cannot use myspace even in their own time. Which is morally wrong IMO because it's their life. In order to do this, the school downloaded spyware onto pupils PCs (via the school website with homeworl info on it), and closed all accounts created and informed parents. This is pathetic, probably illegal and definately immoral.

I the case of kinky conversations, the pupil was breaking school rules if and only if that conversation was continued on a school computer. If they were using the e-mail for research purposes in addition to kinky chats which were all conducted in their own time, the school should not have acted upon this UNLESS the conversation in question posed a risk to their pupil.

--- old post above --- --- new post below ---
Re the American school, we don't know the facts. It also depends on the age of the school children. It also shows that the parents didn't have any kind of filter to see what their kids were downloading. The school may or may not have asked permission (either in a policy document or in an "Clicking OK will allow us to download stuff onto your PC. Click OK or cancel"

My advice would be if you want kinky conversations, try text message at break times. And how was the poor girl supposed to concentrate on her schoolwork if being driven wild with desire by kinky emails......