Facial recognition scrapped in San Diago schools

Encinitas Union School District has scrapped iPad facial recognition replacing passwords.  A system that was thought to initially cost $63,000 spiraled to $189,000 purely for "eliminating a common complaint: having to remember too many passwords for various programs on the devices."

How utterly ridiculous!  If children cannot remember a few passwords to log into an iPad how on earth is a school to hope children will retain lesson content?

What is more worrying is that teachers also "dedicate a lot of time to logging in".  Apparently with this new facial recognition programme it is a “walk through one door and you’re into everything,”...erm, isn't that what an iPad password does anyway?


The whole sales pitch on this was completely flawed - in fact it was a load of rubbish and parents were not falling for it.  A solution to a problem that simply did not exist and parents rightly saw through this.


It's strange isn't it?  Outside school children are quite capable of remembering passwords for computers, tablets and mobile phones.  As a parent I can absolutely say that I have never heard another parent moan about their child's inability to remember a password or had any conversation with another parent about their child's passwords being stolen or compromised.  So it's very odd that when a child enters school this sudden amnesia becomes a problem that potentially costs the tax payer $189,000.  I would say that is unbelievable. 

If maybe, possibly, this peculiar amnesia is true, then surely $189,000 could be better spent to fund research into this strange phenomenon of kids forgetting passwords...  I don't think we'll see that happen because this sudden loss of memory in our children does not exist - and we parents know it.

A petition was set up by a parent that gained over 360 signatures and was successful in swaying opinion that biometric facial recognition is a completely unnecessary and inappropriate technology to use with children.

Findbiometrics say on the failed programme-

"At a time when biometric technology is increasingly finding applications in schools – from deployments as innocuous as cafeteria lunch administration to more serious security systems – the EUSD fiasco signals how precarious this area can be, given the privacy and security concerns that often seem to come up with public biometric deployments, and parents’ particularly strong interest in protecting their kids."   

-  No sh*t Sherlock.

Compulsory fingerprinting for primary school children in Australia

Fingerprinting children in school, especially primary school children, is a contentious issue - with parents and children having the right in the UK not to participate.  Schools must seek written consent to take and process a child's biometric data.

Not so in Australia it seems.

In this article it reported that East Para Primary School has told parents they have "no choice" in the matter for a school registration system that will eventually be introduced for parents too if they want to enter the school.  The school's current newsletter states the same blerb parents have had here in the UK reassuring that no image of the fingerprint will be stored, it cannot be reconstructed and the biometric data will not be given to government or agencies... but put plainly it is a biometric mark/measure of your child's body, in this case a fingerprint, that has to stay secure, safe and never be compromised.

Giving up ones biometric may not be considered a proportionate use of personal data.  Parents should be able to decide what level of privacy they want for themselves and their children in this respect.

The article 'East Para Primary School pupils to have fingerprints scanned as part of new student attendance record-keeping program' goes on to report:

School mother Sandra Tomasin said she was disgusted by the move and immediately rang the school to ask that her Year 1 son be exempt from the program.

“They have told me that I have no choice,’’ Ms Tomasin said.

“It is an invasion of privacy. I don’t want to let it happen but I want to keep him at the school.’’

Ms Tomasin said regardless of whether or not finger prints were stored by the system, primary school children having to scan their fingers when they came and went to school was outrageous.

Sandra Tomasin is rightly outraged and should have a right for her child to attend school and NOT having to give up their biometric data.

In the UK schools fell short of giving this ultimatum as it was thought to breach Human Rights legislation by denying a service to a child because they chose not to give up their biometric data, any ultimatum of this sort was also on shaking grounds with Article 16 of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child  (right to privacy) "Every child has the right to privacy. The law should protect the child’s private, family and home life." - which does apply to Australia.

The below statement was made by Privacy International in 2002 about library systems that used children's fingerprint biometrics in the UK to log books in and out.  It is still applicable now.