Monday, February 12, 2007

Local councillors are uneasy about biometrics in schools

Local councillors across the country are now beginning to ask questions and raise concerns about the lack of concrete guidance or regulations from the Government on this.

A question here from Margaret Featherstone (Lib Dem) at Kent County Council, this from Steve Wakefield (Cons) in West Swindon and a question in Portsmouth from Luke Stubbs (Question 3, page2)

One council in the south of England are surveying their area to determine the percentage of schools that are using biometric fingerprint technology so they know how widespread this is.

It is commendable that this council is undertaking this task but it highlights a poor state of affairs when central government and the Information Commissioners Office are not interested in the types of databases, the technology used, how secure the databases are, or who potentially has access to data, and the reasons why the next generations biometrics are being taken from them quite often without parental consent.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Margaret Featherstone doesnt seem to have mentioned the primary school that has been using the system and who removed it then denied using it once she was contacted?
I hope she will go back and ask who has used it in the past and why parents were not asked for their consent