What ever happened to privacy?

[Daydreamer14]

Today my friend and I had free time at school, as it was a sports day, and we don't do sport. My friend opened up her school e-mails, just to see if she had anything new. She had a message from another one of our friend's that goes to another school. She went to reply to it, and as she did, all of her text was deleted, and it was like the computer was possessed and typing by itself. The message my friend wrote, "How are you? Haven't spoken in ages." As she was about to click 'send', it all disappeared and the computer started typing. "I'm good, thank-you, Laura. (friend's name) I highly suggest you continue with your school work, rather then sending pointless e-mail messages. From Mr Washburn, Head Of Department in computing." It was literally typing. We stared at the screen and then closed it. We experimented and typed an e-mail on mine. We wanted to imply to the teacher that we had freetime, so that he would realize we didn't have to do school work. The email, "Gosh! I have freetime at the moment. Soo boring!" We waited for a moment and another message replaced mine, typing fluently. There were a few typo's, and he backspaced and corrected them. "Maybe it wouldn't be so boring if you came and got a detention from me. Sincerely, Mr Washburn." A guy next to us was watching what was going on and decided to open up Microsoft Word and type Mr Washburn a message. "Hi, sir. Are you watching us??" The message said. "Yes. If you aren't going to use this document, I suggest you close it and log off." The document closed. All of a sudden, the entire class got messages on their screens saying, 'Only school work is appropriate. If I see otherwise, the person responsible will be in trouble. Remember, Mr Washburn is watching you.' Is this a bit overboard? I mean, really. The teacher supervising the class had said that we could do anything we wanted. Sending a quick 'hi' to a friend in a school e-mail isn't that bad. Does anyone else think that this is a little bit overboard? I mean, he watches every word we type in our school work, every click of the mouse... It was like the computer was possessed...

[Kromoh]

Of course it is. My thoughts. But you know, there is this thing called power abuse, and...

[Daydreamer14]

Of course it is. My thoughts. But you know, there is this thing called power abuse, and... He's the meaning of power abuse. I mean for god sake, what teacher talks to people through microsoft word... It's creepy...

[Xox]

Are you. Serious. ?

[Darkmatters]

Interesting quandary. You were using the school's computer, so technically he's within his rights. He probably just had the program installed allowing him to do that and was having fun with it. It brings up the question... do students using a school computer have a right to use it for their own personal emails? I guess if the principal (he's your PAL!) decides you don't, then you don't. Simple as that. What happened to your privacy? Well, you were on a public computer, which belongs to the school. So you don't get privacy there. Apparently you did in the past, so look on those as the golden days, and now Big Brother is watching...

[Daydreamer14]

Interesting quandary. You were using the school's computer, so technically he's within his rights. He probably just had the program installed allowing him to do that and was having fun with it. It brings up the question... do students using a school computer have a right to use it for their own personal emails? I guess if the principal (he's your PAL!) decides you don't, then you don't. Simple as that. What happened to your privacy? Well, you were on a public computer, which belongs to the school. So you don't get privacy there. Apparently you did in the past, so look on those as the golden days, and now Big Brother is watching... He wasn't the principal. He was just some computer teacher who just happened to be scrolling through everyone's accounts in that classroom. I just think they could have told us that they were literally watching us. Apparently he could not do this last year, as we often typed e-mails to each other. I think that if they don't want us to send e-mails, they should tell us... That is the first time a teacher has ever told us not to use them. How were we supposed to know? This particular teacher lectures us at the start of every year about computer policies, and the school e-mails never come up in his lectures... Trust me. You would be scared if your computer just started typing an e-mail by itself... EDIT: @ XoX, Dead serious. Imagine having your computer type by itself... It's creepy. xD EDIT AGAIN: I just remembered something I left out. He used chat lingo. Yes, a 50 year old man used chat lingo. He said at the end of his post, ROFLMFAO. How does a 50 year old man even know what that means? xD He spends way to much time stalking our accounts...

[Darkmatters]

I think that if they don't want us to send e-mails, they should tell us... Ok, good point! Trust me. You would be scared if your computer just started typing an e-mail by itself... ALL YOUR BASES ARE BELONG TO US

[Lucidness]

I already hate mr.washburn. 1. He blaintly likes to abuse his power. 2. Hes a bully. 3. Hes a peverted 50 year old man who likes to pick on girls. (I ASSUMED.)

[Kiza]

You kids need less privacy than even this. CCTV cameras in the bedroom. 24 hour logs of your behaviour.

[Kiza]

Constant reminders not to riot via text message.

[detroitLions1970]

You kids need less privacy than even this. CCTV cameras in the bedroom. 24 hour logs of your behaviour. Constant reminders not to riot via text message. Don't forget the IR sensors, thermal imaging and daily sedation. On a serious note, that school sounds more like a prison than a place of education. Is the teaching at least good, aside from the 24 hour protection from yourself?

[Catbus]

Whether it's free time or not you were using the school's property, so they have the final say as to what you can or can't do on their computers. I understand how you can be a little upset with their actions, but when it comes down to it those computers aren't yours. Honestly, you're pretty lucky that your school has computers for you to use, there are a few schools in my county that still don't have computers. I already hate mr.washburn. 1. He blaintly likes to abuse his power. 2. Hes a bully. 3. Hes a peverted 50 year old man who likes to pick on girls. (I ASSUMED.) Either stop posting, or start applying critical thought to your posts. God damn

[TamiDoll]

That's creepy, but he was well within his rights if those were school comps. He probably didn't wanna tell the students up front about the no email thing. It's easier to get students to follow the rules and understand once they've had a taste of it first hand. (At least I know I wouldn't make that same mistake ever again if that happened to me lol)

[Replicon]

Get off of Dreamviews and get back to your school work. Sincerely, Mr. Washburn

[MementoMori]

Get off of Dreamviews and get back to your school work. Sincerely, Mr. Washburn LMAO, i was waiting for this.... Honestly, he was within his rights, but then again the other teacher said you could. It's a little misleading that he could do it to everyone you said, but that he used chat lingo, i mean that's very unprofessional and immature in that setting, especially ROFLMFAO as that's a very unnecessary use of words by a teacher and sets a bad example. I was first inclined to tell you that it was likely not a teacher but another student, we did this that 70% of the computers in our school, and on breaks would sneak into the library and start "possessing" students and teachers computers. They found out eventually but we bailed in time. The point is i would go to the "source" and have a discussion with Mr. Washburn maybe accompanied in the presence of my principle to get everything clear and a possible school announcement made about it.

[Replicon]

Maybe I'm just a geek, but all of a sudden, I'm wondering if there are any cross-site-scripting opportunities that you can use to mess with this loser who should spend less time snooping, and more time doing his own work, like preparing for the classes he's supposed to be teaching. There was once an old chat plugin (like 10 years ago) that had the option of playing a wave file on the other person's box, assuming it was in a certain directory. If it was missing, it would just give you a generic "ding"... well, turns out it had a buffer overflow bug where long filenames would crash the browser, so I could send private messages to anyone and boot them.

[MementoMori]

There is, and there are even more fun things one could do, but i'm not inclined to post them. I would hate to get the poor girl into trouble

[Smuds]

Don't know if this had already been posted... But a couple of weeks ago... I think it was a New York private school but I forget... The private school got sued because there were cameras that watched the students as they worked in there computers (I don't know if it was a laptop or whatever, but it was school issued I assume...). In an interview, the principal I think said that he liked to "mess with the kids" and that he would sometimes take a picture (this program could do that...) just to screw around with the kids. The kids had no idea, and because of that, it was a total invasion of privacy. I mean, what would happen if one of the kids was changing and they had their camera on... Old pervert much XD?

[Siиdяed]

Washburn sounds like a doubleplus good kinda guy.

[MementoMori]

Yeah, nothing seemed crooked about him, he just seems strict, which isn't a bad thing really. Now if he stole the passwords to their emails or anything else, or dove any deeper into the situation that could've been a step over the line.

[The Invisible Man]

Yeah, nothing seemed crooked about him, he just seems strict, which isn't a bad thing really. Now if he stole the passwords to their emails or anything else, or dove any deeper into the situation that could've been a step over the line. This. At school, he is perfectly within his rights to stop what he sees as a misuse of a computer. However, if he steals your password, that steps the bound of education into your private life. I suggest meeting with your principal or a higher authority and discussing this.

[slayer]

Unfortunately he has the power to do this if you are in the school using the school's computers. However, reading and sending mail to one of your friends shouldn't be allowed, and should be brought to someone's attention.

[Daydreamer14]

You kids need less privacy than even this. CCTV cameras in the bedroom. 24 hour logs of your behaviour. I hope you're kidding. Don't forget the IR sensors, thermal imaging and daily sedation. On a serious note, that school sounds more like a prison than a place of education. Is the teaching at least good, aside from the 24 hour protection from yourself? Haha, daily sedation. xD Actually, our school is rated the best public school in south east queensland (australia) at the moment, so yes, the teaching is sufficient. They are very strict though, as they want to keep their standards.. Thanks for everyone's opinions. I do understand that it was a school computer, but I just wish that they could give us some warning... It was after all, very creepy.

[detroitLions1970]

Actually, our school is rated the best public school in south east queensland (australia) at the moment, so yes, the teaching is sufficient. They are very strict though, as they want to keep their standards.. Well at least all the 'protection' will be worth it in the end. I go to a nice private school, and I'd never imagined any other school to be much stricter than that (you know, based on the other local schools). Looks like my assumption was a bad one! Thanks for everyone's opinions. I do understand that it was a school computer, but I just wish that they could give us some warning... It was after all, very creepy. I know, right? It'd be even worse if you were one of those kids that just sits there idly when bored and types random things into Word or something.

[Noogah]

Protip - The effect on your computer was achieved by the use of a nifty little utility called a "VNC client" It comes in handy to those who are away, and wish to access documents and work at home. It completely takes over all such functions as mouse gestures, keys, etc. There are two ways you can mess with your principal if ever you're annoyed enough. 1. Vnc has it's disadvantages, including a rather slow framerate. If you were to play a video file, he would see a few frames seconds apart from eachother, and his client would begin to slow considerably. 2. Move the mouse quickly and obnoxiously. Unless his client has an override function setup (he probably does) he won't be able to do anything but watch as his screen goes berserk and he can't budge the mouse 3. Assuming you really need privacy for wahtever reason, you can totally terminate the vnc application by opening up Windows task manager (access by right clicking the toolbar, or holding down ctrl+alt+delete at the same time) going to processes, and ending anything with vnc, viewer or client in it. 4. If, for some reason, you cannot end the process, you can easily mess him up by tweaking the application settings. Simply observe the icons in the taskbar. There will probably be one with a yellow eye on it. If not, just open them all until you find the right one. The host application will (among other things) give you the option to kick all listeners.