Teacher Allowed to Sue Software Company for Sending Her Explicit Photos to Cops
A federal judge has refused to dismiss a privacy lawsuit filed by a substitute teacher in Ohio that contends a software company accessed the woman’s sexually explicit photos and sent them to police investigating a stolen computer.
U.S. District Judge Walter Rice refused last week to grant a motion for summary judgment filed by the company, Absolute Software, report Wired, Forbes and the Internet Cases blog. The plaintiffs are the teacher, 52-year-old Susan Clements-Jeffrey, and her long-distance boyfriend, Carlton Smith.
Clements-Jeffrey bought the stolen laptop for $60 in 2008 from a student who said he didn’t need the computer because he was getting a new one, according to the opinion (PDF). The computer was equipped with anti-theft software called LoJack for Laptops that gave employees of Absolute Software remote access to the computer.
The suit claims Absolute employees took three screen shots of webcam images on Clements-Jeffrey’s computer monitor showing her naked as she communicated with Smith. The company sent the images to Springfield, Ohio, police, who had the photos with them when they showed up to arrest Clements-Jeffrey in June 2008. Charges were dismissed about a week later.
The suit claims the software company invaded the couple’s privacy and violated two federal laws: the Electronic Communications Privacy Act and the Stored Communications Act. Rice allowed both claims.
“It is one thing to cause a stolen computer to report its IP address or its geographical location in an effort to track it down,” Rice said. “It is something entirely different to violate federal wiretapping laws by intercepting the electronic communications of the person using the stolen laptop.”
A Fourth Amendment claim against police for a warrantless search of Clements-Jeffrey’s apartment is also pending.
