The civil liberties campaign group’s findings are based on responses to Freedom of Information Act Requests sent out to 2,500 schools during the 2012-2013 academic year.
The results revealed 866,000 children had their fingerprints taken, but BBW claims this figure is likely to be around the 1.28 million mark now.
This is based on the assumption that more schools have adopted biometric technology since the research was undertaken, and the fact we’re now one term into the 2013-2014 academic year.
Worryingly, its research also suggests many children have had their fingerprints collected in school without parental consent being given.
This goes against the Protection of Freedoms Act 2012, which came into force in October 2013 and legally guarantees that no fingerprint data can be taken from a child without parental consent.
Biometric technology, in the form of fingerprint scanners, are being increasingly used in schools to replace library cards, to monitor attendance and allow children to access food in the canteen.
And the repercussions of its increased use are a major worry for the team at BBW, because of its tracking implications.
“We continue to be concerned that the use of biometric technologies threatens the development of a sense of privacy as young people develop while also creating greater opportunities to track an individual pupil’s activity across multiple areas, from the library books they take out to the food they eat,” the BBW report states.
“Given the rise of schools making this information available to parents online, the biometric technology used in this way comes close to constituting not just an ID card but a way of monitoring all their behaviour,” it added.
The organisation said the act of collecting children’s fingerprints without permission should be a big concern for parents, but students need to be aware they have a legal right to opt out of using biometric systems if they want to.
“Parents will be rightly concerned to hear so many schools did not seek their permission to fingerprint their children, while pupils may not have been made aware they now have a legal right to ask to use a system that doesn’t require a fingerprint to be taken,” BBW said in a statement.
“The Government was right to change the law but it’s up to parents to make sure the law is being followed.”
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Autor(en)/Author(s): Caroline Donnelly
Quelle/Source: IT PRO, 03.01.2014
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