Thursday, January 11, 2007

Why have we got fingerprint scanners in school libraries?

Just saw this child's view on fingerprint technology here in York, where the issue over biometrics in schools rumbles on:
Those who are worried about the system simply don't understand how it works. It is used for taking out books and nothing else. "And I'm quite happy with that."
No, no, no - it's not just used for taking books out. It's primarily there to monitor what you read by your age, gender and what ethic origin you are. The library systems can restrict learning resources to these groups too.

These features are adverstised by the school library retailers - the real reasons why schools are buying into fingerprinting...
The inspectors were very impressed by the way in which we are able to provide detailed statistics and monitor use of the library by gender, year group, ethnicity and individual progress in numbers of books borrowed. This is due to the excellent reports developed...
How nice (not)- a prime example of un-informed decisions taken by children who do not know the full facts.

"...as long as you have got nothing to hide, you should have nothing to worry about" - actually it's because you have nothing to hide you should be worried about it. Value liberty.

1 comment:

Raw Carrot said...

It's pretty mental isn't.

Presumably DNA readers won't be far behind?

Fun fun... but don't worry - you don't have anything to hide do you?