ACLU voices concerns as Indiana schools use fingerprint scanners

The Herald Argos in Indiana, USA, have reported that biometric systems are to be implemented in the La Porte and New Prairie school corporations.

"Some parents were unaware of the fingerprint scan until contacted by The La Porte County Herald-Argus Tuesday. Parents at Olive have not received detailed information on the technology.

La Porte spent between $100 and $200 each for 15 scanners and pays $5,738 each year for software licensing."

Parents are concerned about the cost and ACLU have voiced their concerns regarding children surrendering their privacy at a younger and younger age. A CLU and parents across states in the USA, have helped convince schools officials in Boulder, Colo, and in Taunton, Mass. to abandon plans to use biometrics in schools.

Parents, such as Joy Robinson-Van Gilder and Patti Crossman, have been paramount in these changes of school board attitudes towards the casual biometric fingerprinting of children in schools.

"One person leading the campaign against this technology in Boulder was Joe Pezzillo, 38, a computer software developer involved with the technology.

He said that just because the finger isn’t dipped in ink and placed on paper doesn’t change the fact that it is a fingerprint.

“The fact of the matter is there is a unique identifier to identify your child whether it is stored as a number or a picture of the fingerprint,”

“You cannot change a fingerprint. It will uniquely identify the child for the rest of their life.” "