Biometrics are gaining inroads into public school systems.
As another school year begins, many districts are seeing a push towards the use of biometrics to track students throughout their school day. Despite the fact that these systems can easily be thwarted, school administrations believe that biometric tracking will only be a benefit to the school district and not invasions of privacy.
Moss Bluff Elementary School in Lake Charles, Louisana is using Fujitsu’s PalmSecure to speed up their lunch lines. Parents have freaked out over the scanners, but not because of privacy issues. They believe it’s the biblical mark of the beast. The school does, however, offer an opt-out for the students. These parents should be more worried about the privacy implications than whether or not it’s evil.
Video, KPLC 7 News, Lake Charles, Louisiana
The Northside Independent School District in San Antonio is requiring all students to wear an RFID-equipped student ID tag. Parents are upset about the cards, with one claiming that their child is not an animal and doesn’t need to be tracked.
Andrea Hernandez, a sophomore at Northside ISD’s Science and Engineering Academy, said she was shocked when she was issued her new mandatory student ID.
“It’s huge and I have to wear it like a dog collar,” she said. “It’s ridiculous. There’s absolutely no need for it.”
The new ID, which is three to four times thicker than the old ID, uses radio frequencies to send a signal throughout campus buildings. It’s similar to the ID system used throughout Spring ISD near Houston at all of its campuses.
“My child doesn’t need to be tracked,” Andrea’s father, Steven Hernandez, said. “They put chips in animals to track animals but I think this is overstepping their boundaries.”
Northside’s board voted earlier this summer to run the pilot program at Jay High School and Jones Middle School which had some of the lowest attendance rates in the district.
“This Smart Student ID card is designed to help us locate students in an emergency if we have to,” said district spokesman Pascual Gonzalez. “It will also allow us to manage the attendance better so we can get revenues for particular schools.”
Again, this comes down to a revenue issue. The school district wants their money. Instead of trying to figure out why attendance rates are so low, they just want folks to come, check in, and let the district get their cash. The district also voted on the matter during the summer when most parents are on vacation and unaware that such meetings take place. By voting on the issue over the summer, the district doesn’t have to worry about parents showing up to protest against it.
Two high schools in Stanislaus County in California have joined many others across the nation in requiring students to wear RFID student badges at all times while on campus.
The IDs are needed, said Sarah Gill, associate principal at Beyer. At least weekly, nonstudents who might pass for teens turn up on campus without lanyards visible, she said.
Then maybe the school should be looking at why so many non-students are showing up and address that problem. It won’t be difficult at all for non-students to borrow or create an ID and wander around the campus. If you’re identifying students solely by who’s wearing their lanyard, you’re going to find out very quickly how flawed your plan is.
These school districts need to address the problem of faked ID, fake fingerprints, and the fact that a child’s biometric identifiers are stored in a database that the parents have no control over. These programs are rarely about child safety and more about revenue. As long as that tag says the student is in school, they get paid. The safety aspect is just a ploy to get parents on their side. It has been, and always will be, wrong to track humans. Unfortunately, if there’s money to be made out of it, then it’s best to start getting the masses used to it when they’re young and don’t understand the broader implications of being tracked in every aspect of life.
http://www.dailycensored.com/2012/08/20/biometrics-gain-more-inroads-into-the-public-school-system/
EPIC supports a moratorium on RFID student tracking.
EPIC, along with Consumers Against Supermarket Privacy Invasion and Numbering (CASPIAN) and other leading privacy and civl liberties organizations, issued a Position Paper on the Use of RFID in Schools. Radio Frequency Identification is an identification tracking technology "designed to monitor physical objects," such as commercial products, vehicles, and animals. Some school districts are proposing to use RFID ID tags to monitor students, teachers, and staff. The report warns of significant privacy and security risks. If RFID techniques are adopted, the groups urge that schools adopt robust privacy safeguards. In 2006 and 2007, EPIC submitted comments to federal agencies recommending against the use of RFID technology to track air travelers. The State Department subsequently made changes to the "e-Passport," to address privacy and security concerns. For more information, see EPIC: Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) Systems and EPIC: Student Privacy.