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LoJack for Laptops is a security app created by Vancouver, Canada, based Absolute Software that enables law enforcement to recover stolen laptops by tracing them across the Internet. In that way, it's similar to LoJack (for vehicles), and the company licensed the name back in 2005. We doubt LoJack (for vehicles) ever had this sort of problem, however.

Susan Clements-Jeffrey, who is in her 50s, has sued Absolute Software over naked webcam photos that had been taken of her via their software. According court documents, in 2008 Clements-Jeffrey, who is a Springfield-based substitute schoolteacher, purchased a used laptop for $60 from one of her students. He said he had a new computer and didn't need it any longer.

What she didn't know was that the laptop had originally been purchased by Ohio's Clark County School District, which had installed Vancouver-based Absolute Software's LoJack for Laptops theft-recovery software on it.

At the time, Clements-Jeffrey, a widow in her 50s, had renewed a high school romance with a man living in Boston, Carlton "Butch" Smith, and the pair were sending sexually explicit webcam photos to each other.

The laptop, however, had been reported stolen by the school district. Armed with a copy of a police report detailing the theft of the laptop, the district authorized Absolute Software to initiate its theft-recovery service.

The next time the laptop was online, the service would reveal its IP address to Absolute. As part of the service, LoJack for Laptops allows Absolute's theft recovery officers to gain remote access to the laptop, even take screenshots of it.

Kyle Magnus was Absolute's theft recovery officer assigned to the case. In June of 2008, Absolute was able to locate the computer's IP address and, using that, its location.

Of course, Clements-Jeffrey believed she had legally purchased the laptop. In addition, the lawsuit centers around three snapshots of Clements-Jeffrey, taken during a webcam sex-chat with a man she had known from high school, Carlton Smith, who lives in Boston, Massachusetts. Clements-Jeffrey is widowed, and the pair had been sending sexually explicit webcam photos to each other, as part of the online romance.

When police arrived at her doorstep, they waved a package that they have been given by Absolute Software in front of Clements-Jeffrey's face. Among the images were the sex-chat images. Police arrested her for possession of stolen property.

In March of 2009, Clements-Jeffrey and Smith filed a lawsuit against the police officers, the City of Springfield, and also against Absolute Software. The suit accuses Magnus of intentionally invading the couple's privacy.

Richard Rosenberg, a retired UBC computer science professor and president of the B.C. Freedom of Information and Privacy Association, said that using a webcam to spy on someone, even in terms of recovering a stolen laptop, is going too far. "To keep track of the woman, to look at her ... seems irrelevant to the primary responsibility."

The primary responsibility of LoJack for Laptops would be to recover the laptop. Once the device's location has been found, it seems there is little reason to take images of the "culprit."

The incident can also be a cautionary tale, and in more than one way. A laptop for $60 is obviously a deal too good to be true, unless it was an extremely old laptop which, since the district was eager to recover it, it was probably not.

Additionally, if we had obtained such a laptop, we would have re-imaged it with a fresh OS install. That would have been done not just for our safety (eliminating the possibility of malware, etc.) but also for the privacy of the seller.

Absolute's motion for summary judgment has been dismissed by Judge Walter Herbert Rice. The lawsuit will continue in U.S. District Court.

Comcast is launching Internet Essentials, a new initiative offering discounted Internet access and home computers to families that meet low income requirements. The program was mandated as a requirement of Comcast's acquisition of NBC Universal, earlier this year.

In that way, it's very similar to AT&T's Naked DSL program, which AT&T was required to offer as a condition of its merger with BellSouth.

Internet Essentials will be available wherever Comcast offers broadband, which means 39 states. To promote the program, Comcast has launched websites in both English and Spanish.

To qualify for Internet Essentials, a family must meet the following requirements:

• Has at least one child eligible to receive a free school lunch under the NSLP (as an example, according to the Department of Agriculture, a household of three would have to make less than $25,000 a year in income);
• Has not subscribed to Comcast Internet service within the last 90 days;
• Has children in grades K-12
• Does not have an overdue Comcast bill or unreturned equipment.

As part of the program, families will receive literacy training and Internet service for $9.95 a month (plus tax). Comcast Executive Vice President David Cohen said, "When we look around the country, we see the disparities that exist. Quite frankly, people in lower-income communities, mostly people of color, have such limited access to broadband than people in wealthier communities."

Families will also receive a voucher which will allow them to purchase a new computer for $149.99 (plus tax).

As an example, according to the Department of Agriculture, a household of three would have to make less than $25,000 a year in income to qualify. Qualifying students will receive an application at the start of the upcoming school year.

Back in the day, it was sometimes hard to pull the trigger on a new computer, because just a few months later, something new would come up. That's now become the norm for smartphones, too: Samsung has said it will be delivering a smartphone with a 2GHz dual-core processor.

According to a high-ranking Samsung official, the CPU, which will released next year, will have the data processing capability of a PC.

"We are planning to release a 2Ghz dual core CPU-equipped smartphone by next year. This product will have the data processing capacities of a regular PC."

Reportedly, Samsung also plans to sell the processors separately, to other OEMs. Given that, the processor will probably be marketed under the Exynos brand, which Samsung launched in February of this year.

Samsung is taking it on the chin today after revelations that a keylogger was found by a Network World writer, on not one but two Samsung computers. Because of the placement of the files in the same location, the writer, security consultant Mohammed Hassan, says in fact be something intentional that Samsung is doing.

According to Hassan, he spoke to a Samsung supervisor. That supervisor:

[...] confirmed that yes, Samsung did knowingly put this software on the laptop to, as he put it, "monitor the performance of the machine and to find out how it is being used."

This whole incident makes little sense, however. For one, the keylogger, StarLogger, is pretty old (2004). It is therefore readily detectable by antivirus software.

Most people, however, don't run a virus scan on a new computer once they receive it, believing it to be pristine. We, however, do run a virus scan upon receipt of a new computer.

Additionally, it would seem that Samsung, if they were doing this, would be setting itself up for a lawsuit. Here's Samsung's official statement on the matter:

“Samsung takes Mr. Hassan’s claims very seriously. After learning of the original post this morning on NetworkWorld.com, we launched an internal investigation into this issue. We will provide further information as soon as it is available.”

Meanwhile, Samsung users either run an antivirus scan, or check their computer for a a folder “c:\windows\SL” on their machines, which reportedly stores the StarLogger program.

Via: Forbes