Hi. My school just started issuing devices last year, and they have this Lightspeed spyware on them. Last year I was able to remove it by booting into Linux from a flash drive and moving the files to a separate drive and then back at the end of the year. This year I have heard from sources that they have ways of detecting someone booting from Linux so I am hesitant to do that option. My only other idea is to buy an old laptop off eBay that looks like it and install Linux on it. I could probably get one for about 50€. Does anyone have any cheaper ideas?
Oh also talking to IT isn’t an option.
Why would you not separate personal devices from school devices? If you can afford a personal device, do so; it won’t be the last time.
Actually I can install things on it and only installed a better browser and office suite. I would simply prefer not to be spied on at school, and I don’t think that that is unreasonable.
Just don’t use school property for things you want to be private. It works the exact same way with anything owned by any organization you may work for in the future.
It’s a laptop owned by your school, so they can install spyware if they want to. More importantly the school likely has policies against removing or otherwise tampering with it. You would be wise to find out what they will do if you violate this policy. It could be anything from a slap on the wrist to expulsion.
Any decent IT department will eventually figure out if you disable it. They’ll know fairly quickly if it stops “phoning in” if the spyware is any good.
Yeah, they put spyware on minors’ laptops and then act all surprised when shit like this happens: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robbins_v._Lower_Merion_School_District
I work for a school and I provision these types of devices. You do not want to modify or change anything about them, as it probably breaks your acceptable use policy. If they allow you to bring your own device, then do that. But do not change the device they give you in any manner. Just don’t use school property for things you want to be private. It works the exact same way with anything owned by any organization you may work for in the future. They own the device, they set the terms. And your excuse of ‘it does not break policy’ or ‘it is not against the law’ is ridiculous, as policy is intentionally broad for this reason, and the law requires you to not interrupt normal classroom activities. If the school lets you, bring your own device. Otherwise, tough luck, seems like you won’t be able to play your games.
i would like to add on to this, do not bring your own device, just simply keep school/work and personal stuff entirely separate. simple as that.
all work and schools that allow you to use a personal device that I’m aware of will require you to have whatever software for surveillance that they have on provisioned devices, you’ll likely end up messing up and leaking something private, and it just takes up storage space.
it’s the organization’s device, they can put whatever nonsense they want on it, just be sure that you only ever use accounts from them on the device. never a personal account of any kind.
trivialising a student’s desire for privacy as being about playing videogames is a lot more ridiculous than anything the OP said.
maybe rethink your uncritical support for surveillance, and either organise with your coworkers to make your school’s policies more respectful of its students, or find a less unethical job.
uncritical support for surveillance
We are, by law, required to keep this information. However, unlike many other schools, we have a byod policy that allows students to use their own device to essentially bypass this ‘surveillance’.
pressing X to doubt that you only help keep information on students that you’re required to by law.
and, something being legally required doesn’t mean you need to enthusiastically support it in an online discussion.
Don’t tamper with hardware that somebody else owns. If you get caught, you could be fined a lot more than 50€ and expelled. School administrators often like to “make an example” of kids that they think are “hackers” even if you’re just booting Linux from USB. They don’t understand the difference between that and real hacking, so don’t risk it.
You can only achieve true privacy on hardware that you own. A cheap laptop to boot Linux isn’t a bad idea.
Absolutely yes, if you buy hackable and repairable hardware you can do whatever you want with it. Especially if you install software on it that is FOSS.
By my question I mean:
Any hardware is made by some other people. Any hardware is work under a firmware, made by other people.
All that is a) regulated by licenses b) never can be trusted fully to work as you think it should work. Even if it based on open source - due to the “problem of untampered compiler”.
If you have no total control over your hardware, can you say you truly own it?
What percent of control is acceptable? How to measure it?
Know your school handbook and acceptable use policy inside and out. Same with any other published guidelines they provide. My bet is that their AUP says something about not circumventing their security and monitoring tools. Booting into a live OS would certainly fall into that category. But knowing what the rules actually say is probably the first thing you should do since you don’t own the hardware or network. From there, you can decide how far you really want to go and if there are any defenses or loopholes in the rules.
Getting your own hardware is probably your best option in this case if you can do so.
