 |
LeaveThemKidsAlone.com ©
LTKA © against schools fingerprinting our children |
| Read what the BBC said about this issue Please tell a friend |
|
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 <<
|
|
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 |
DfES 'spin' on school biometrics
|
Ever-changing 'spin' from the DFES and the Information Commissioner as they struggle to defend their shameful inaction on schools that fingerprint our children: 4th July 2001 Information Commissioner - fingerprinting pupils is actually helpful... - Robert Mechan, Compliance Officer: "The system helps ensure the accuracy of the information held; it aids compliance with the Data Protection Act 1998." In subsequent media coverage, the Commission was reported as wanting to "encourage" the use of fingerprinting in schools. 7th October 2002 DfES - ... we're certainly not worried about this... - John Hopper, Parental Involvement in Children's Education team: "Having seen the software demonstrated, I can state for the record that we are satisfied..." July 2001 - August 2006 DfES - ...but anyway, it's nothing to do with us! - FIVE YEARS of government stalling while 5000+ schools fingerprint our children, mostly without parental knowledge or consent. 7 September 2006 DfES - schools need consent to fingerprint children... - DfES spokesperson: "[Schools] should inform parents and get consent unless the child is of 'sufficient maturity that s/he can give consent her/himself" 7 September 2006 Information Commissioner - ...but they can get this direct from kids as young as five - David Smith, deputy Information Commissioner: "[children] can give consent without deferring to their parents" ( Click here for the Law Lords' actual ruling about consent - especially paragraph 4 onwards ) 8 November 2006 Minister for Schools - we WON'T publish biometric guidance for schools... - Jim Knight MP: "We have not issued specific guidance to schools and local authorities on the introduction of biometric technologies." 21 December 2006 DfES - we WILL publish biometric guidance for schools... - Government response to petition: "We are currently working with the British Educational and Communication Technology Agency (Becta) and with the office of the Information Commissioner to update the guidance including around the use of Biometric technologies." 9 February 2007 Information Commissioner - ... which teachers will effectively be free to ignore... - Spokesman for the Information Commissioner : "We appreciate that there are sensitivities, which is why we're going to publish guidance to encourage schools to get consent." 17 January 2007 Information Commissioner - either way, now it's too late to stop school fingerprinting... - David Smith, deputy Information Commissioner: "For us to come out now and say fingerprinting isn't allowed would be very difficult because these systems have come in over the last four years." 29 January 2007 Minister of State for Schools - ...though we have no idea how many schools are taking prints - Jim Knight MP: "The Department has no estimate of the number of schools that collect biometric information from pupils." 19 March 2007 Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, DfES - ...and we're a still bit unclear on the difference between a fingerprint and a library card... - Lord Adonis: "So far as the pupil is concerned, once they have provided this [biometric] information, they have a card that they can use to access library services." 9 February 2007 Information Commissioner - ...but after five years we've suddenly realised the children's data should be professionally wiped... - spokeswoman for the ICO: "Under the Data Protection Act schools must also dispose of the data using professional data cleansing companies once the child has left or if it no longer of use." 8 March 2007 (The most outrageous response yet!!) Minister of State for Schools, DfES - This is getting awkward. But we've just realised that, under laws we passed five years ago, schools can do whatever they want and there's nothing you can do about it! - Jim Knight MP: "The governing body of a maintained school has the legal power to do anything which appears to them to be necessary or expedient for the purposes of, or in connection with, the conduct of the school." |
Yet the government seems obsessed with collecting information about every other aspect of childrens' lives. Every term, schools are required by law to submit to the DfES more than 40 items of sensitive information for every single pupil (even those in nursery schools or looked after by childminders) including name, address, ethnicity - even mode of travel to school. Schools receive more than 70 pages of guidance on how to fill in the forms. The Government has confirmed that this data will never be deleted.
"Remarkably, there appears to be no attempt to record the spread of school biometric surveillance by any government agency. Considering the many health-and-safety rules which prevent a child from engaging in virtually any school activity without laborious form-filling and written parental permission being sought, this is clearly an absurd situation. The fact that secrecy is surrounding so much of this activity lends the entire process a sinister aura which must be dispelled." concerned parent
There seems to be one thing that can be clearly deduced from all the above. That the UK government, for reasons unknown, is absolutely determined to facilitate the fingerprinting of an entire generation, on a daily basis and in familiar surroundings. It would appear that they will say and do whatever is necessary to achieve that aim. By contrast, even the Chinese government abandoned the fingerprinting of children in their schools in the wake of widespread criticism over students' privacy rights.
