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LeaveThemKidsAlone.com ©
LTKA © against schools fingerprinting our children |
| Read what the BBC said about this issue Please tell a friend |
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LeaveThemKidsAlone.com ©
LTKA © against schools fingerprinting our children |
| Read what the BBC said about this issue Please tell a friend |
>> Vital questions you need to ask your children's school about fingerprinting <<
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WARNING: Some computer security experts feel that in the future it will be possible for the information stored on school biometric systems to be used to steal your child's identity |
10 Things You Need To Know About Primary Schools Fingerprinting Our Children (expanded version) | |
| We're just a group of ordinary parents aiming to stop schools from fingerprinting our children without asking us, and in many cases without even having the courtesy to inform us. Since 2002 when this disgraceful practice started, neither the DfES nor the Information Commissioner have made any attempt to intervene. Indeed, the DfES have made it easy for schools to obtain the necessary funding. | Many parents aren't even aware that their children have been fingerprinted at school. Some find out by chance, sometimes years later. If you're a parent, we strongly recommend you ask your children if it's happened to them. You may be shocked by what you discover. |
Fact 1Fingerprinting is being introduced in thousands of UK Primary Schools as part of a subsidised library package called Junior Librarian that they have purchased, encouraged by central government. New schools are joining the scheme at the rate of around 20 a week. To date, more than 3500 schools and nurseries (manufacturer's official figure, given to the Daily Mirror) have fingerprinted and photographed 3/4 million children, ranging in age from 3 to 11; impressionable, trusting and naive. "The EU is planning to fingerprint children from as young as six, and earlier just as soon as it is technically feasible." The Register 31st July, 2006 "Most people would get alarmed if they were told thousands of schoolchildren were having their fingerprints taken and stored on school computers." The Guardian, January 11th 2005 "[Fingerprinting of children] should be regarded with suspicion by anyone who cares about privacy." The Daily Telegraph, July 26th 2002 Junior Librarian and Alice Junior, which both have the option to fingerprint children, can be purchased with e-learning credits - part of the DfES's Curriculum Online project, a source of funding for schools for the purchase of certified curriculum-based software and digital content. And Ramesys, who work with over 12000 schools, LEAs and RBCs have made Junior Librarian's manufacturer a business partner. Capita Education Services have made Vericool (school fingerprint registration system) and EasyTrace (fingerprint-based cashless catering, access control and electronic registration), premier partners with access to their SQL database AND a commercial arrangement for the reselling or endorsement or their products. A number of Local Education Authorities have expressed an intention to roll out biometric-related systems to ALL schools under their jurisdiction within the next few years.
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Fact 2This is always done without explicit parental consent, and even in some cases, without parental knowledge. Schools strongly resist sending parents the opt-in consent slips that are used for just about everything else. Some parents only find out AFTERWARDS when they ask their children "what did you do at school today?"
"I consider that this was an infringement of my son's civil rights and a breach of trust on the part of the school. This should not have been done at all, and certainly not without our consent, or indeed knowledge." a mother from London, speaking to BBC News Online, July 23rd 2002 "That so many schools have been happy to install such systems, often without thinking it necessary to consult parents, is a reflection of how this technology is infiltrating society." The Guardian, March 30th 2006
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Fact 3The whole scheme may be illegal. And at least one Local Education Authority has already sent out guidelines to all its schools restricting the use of biometrics without express parental consent. But since governing bodies and headteachers have responsibility for many decisions on their school budgets, neither Ministers nor the Department for Education nor Local Education Authorities have any way of knowing just how many schools under their jurisdiction are fingerprinting the children in their care. "Absent a specific power allowing schools to fingerprint, I'd say they have no power to do it... The notion you can do it because it's a neat way of keeping track of books doesn't cut it as a justification." Stephen Groesz, a partner with the law firm Bindmans, March 30th 2006 "The law states that privacy invasion must be proportionate to the threat. A few lost library cards do not warrant mass fingerprinting." Simon Davies, executive director of Privacy International, July 23rd 2002 "[Sixthformers] believe the storage of their biometric data on computer systems will breach their right to privacy. Several pupils said using the scanners would make them feel like criminals." The Guardian, Saturday July 15th 2006
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Fact 4Schools are not nearly secure enough to perform biometric scans (airports and banks spend millions on their security). There is a real danger that children's fingerprints could be stolen, and this could affect them for the rest of their lives (eg for passports and bank accounts) since unlike a PIN number, a fingerprint cannot ever be changed. "What we've seen in the last 10 years is what's true in IT today isn't necessarily true in future. Anybody who says it is secure and can't be compromised is silly." Andrew Clymer computer security expert (8 years with Cisco Systems), March 30th 2006 "There is something extremely personal about a biometric and if a computer holding children's stored fingerprints were stolen the psychological effect on parents would be massive." Simon Davies, executive director of Privacy International, March 30th 2006 "Why does it all matter? Because a password is something you have; a fingerprint is something you are. A password can be reset, reissued, forgotten, copied, written down, or changed. A fingerprint is for life." The Guardian, March 30th 2006
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Fact 5Fingerprinting 5-year-olds without asking parents has become a multi-million pound business. Some of the companies involved in school biometrics use some very questionable sales techniques, and have close links with the US military and even the interrogators at Guantanamo Bay. "A military company connected to the US interrogators at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq and Guantanamo Bay camp is behind a finger-printing system used in British schools." The Times Educational Supplement, 21st July 2006 "A company which used the murder of West Lothian schoolboy Rory Blackhall to promote anti-truancy software has been criticised by the advertising watchdog." BBC News, 16th November 2005
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Fact 6Data held on these systems is not protected by the Data Protection Act and may fall under the provisions of the Children Act 2004 which allows data on every child in the UK to be accessed and shared by a wide range of government officials including police, teachers, GPs and social workers, without parents' consent or even knowledge. Head Teachers have no power to overrule this, so any well-intentioned assurances they may give parents about data sharing are worthless. One system, Junior Librarian, "even has a report specifically designed for school inspections". "Schools having children's fingerprints could lead to the information being stored on government computers with DNA records and personal details." The Daily Mirror, July 3rd 2006 "Our main concerns are what will happen to this data after the students have left the school. We will be monitoring the scheme." A spokesman for the civil liberties group Liberty, July 15th 2006
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Fact 7There is no hard evidence of any lasting educational benefit from fingerprinting children. Aside from anecdotal claims in manufacturers' glossy brochures, no independent research on this has ever been carried out. In addition, the manufacturers have admitted their systems work just as well without the biometric scanning, and some parents and teachers have claimed they even work better without. "We do not see this as necessary and we are concerned that this technology may well invade people's privacy without providing any noticeable gains." Doug Jewell, spokesman for the civil liberties group Liberty, 10th March 2005 "Ultimately, this is an optional module - the system works perfectly well without it." Andy O'Brien, managing director, Micro Librarian Systems, January 11th 2005
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Fact 8As schools increasingly come to rely on biometric systems like Junior Librarian in their day to day management, they become ever more impersonal and anonymous, and vital teacher pupil interaction is lost. "When I was teaching, attendance-taking was an important part of the day. You would call the name, look up, and make eye contact - notice them for a second. It was an important human part of the day." Terri Dowty, director of Action for the Rights of Children, March 30th 2006 Dr James Atherton condemns "the unthinking adoption of new technology fixes for problems which were not problems", and adds "...using figerprints to register children [is] an expensive alternative to the time-honoured system of sending a child to the office with the register, which took two minutes and gave some child a little sense of responsibility..." "Checking children's books in and out of libraries, with very simple systems, was a way to get to know their names... The more we use technology in the interests of efficiency, the more we alienate children from a fundamental understanding of agreements, promises, contracts and bargains. It's a crucial part of the social curriculum, and it is at primary school that it matters more than anywhere" Dr James Atherton, learningandteaching.info, July 13th 2006
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Fact 9Some experts claim that one side effect of fingerprinting small children, whether intentional or not, is to condition them to accept without question Big Brother-style biometric tracking in later life. And without wishing to seem alarmist, the last time young children were fingerprinted en masse without the express consent of their parents was during the Second World War. "If children get used to thinking biometric data can be used for trivial purposes - and a school library is a rather trivial purpose - how do they learn to be careful where they put their fingerprints and iris scans?" Terri Dowty, director of Action for the Rights of Children, March 30th 2006 "[Fingerprinting children is] seen as 'softening up' resistance before people are asked for biometric data such as eye-scans to put on compulsory identity cards." The Daily Mirror, July 3rd 2006 "Each [protokol sheet was] a two-sided information sheet on every Jew in the Brisk Ghetto, containing a photograph, a fingerprint, biographical details and some family information. The Nazis spared no effort to produce accurate records about every Jewish woman, man and child that they were about to ship off to Bronaya Gora, the mass killing site some 77 miles away, to be shot and buried in a big pit." Jewish World Review - May 27th, 1998
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Fact 10The whole issue needs to be debated openly. Schools are very reluctant to do this. Many even try to cloud the issue by referring to "using your thumb", "fingertip registration", or "fingerswipe system" in a seemingly bizarre attempt to hide the fact that they are simply fingerprinting children without express consent. The police, who presumably know about these things, call the systems they use "fingerprint scanners", and use them to catch criminals. "The lack of trust and respect from the school to the students seems to be apparent. We have the right to hold on to our own biometrics and have the right to say who we shall disclose them to." Sixthformer Shaun Woodage, 17, The Guardian, Saturday July 15th 2006 "The school thumb-scanner being used by British primary schools was being internationally condemned as a blatant breach of children's human rights." The Times, July 23rd 2002
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Fans of George Orwell might be interested to know that
the boss of Micro Librarian Systems is called, perhaps appropriately, O'Brien.
"'It is necessary for us to know everything.' said O'Brien." George Orwell, '1984'
