Biometrics in schools refers to the use of biometric data such as fingerprints and facial recognition to identify students. This may be for daily transactions in the library or canteen or for monitoring absenteeism and behavior control. In 2002, Privacy International raised concerns that tens of thousands of UK school children were being fingerprinted by schools, often without the knowledge or consent of their parents. The supplier, Micro Librarian Systems, which uses technology similar to that used in prisons and the military, estimated that 350 schools throughout Britain were using such systems. In 2007, it was estimated that 3,500 schools are using such systems. Some schools in Belgium and the US have followed suit. Concerns have been raised by a number of groups, who suggest the harms far outweigh any putative benefits.
Definition
Biometrics are unique physical or behavioral characteristics which can be used to automatically identify individuals. Biometric technologies capture, process and measure these characteristics electronically and compare them against existing records to create a highly accurate identity management capability.
Types of biometrics used in schools
Fingerprint recognition technology in the biometric market has held the largest market size worldwide and has been widely adopted by many industries including schools. Fingerprint recognition is the most pervasive, old, simple, and cheap form of biometric technology. Although palm vein recognition, iris recognition and face recognition have been implemented in schools, finger scanning is by far the most commonly used technology in the U.S. education market.
In the UK, primarily the type of biometric employed is a fingerprint scan or thumbprint scan, but vein and iris scanning systems are also in use.
United Kingdom
Biometrics have been used in the UK since the early first decade of the 21st century. Biometric technology is used to address truancy, to replace library cards, or to charge for meals. School biometrics, typically electronic fingerprinting systems, have raised privacy concerns because of the creation of databases that would progressively include the entire population. The UK introduced legal duties on schools if they wish to use biometric information about pupils, in the Protection of Freedoms Act 2012.
Schools use pupils' biometric data for cashless catering, libraries, payment systems, registration and locker systems. In the UK biometric technology in schools was initially used for library book issue, approved for use by the UK's Information Commissioner's Office in 2001 and the Department for Education in 2002. Within a few years biometrics were being used for cashless catering systems, enabling relatives to deposit money into pupils' catering accounts, to be debited by a child's biometric fingerprint scan at the point of sale. In the USA biometrics systems are used for catering primarily, as mentioned above, with library and registration biometrics in use as well. Fingerprint locking systems are also used in the United Kingdom (fingerprint lock in the Holland Park School in London,) databases, etc., in Belgium (Marie-José school in Liège), in France, in Italy, etc.
When children use systems in which their biometric fingerprints are processed in school no image of the fingerprint is stored, although the fingerprint data stored can be potentially used in the same way as an image of a fingerprint. A series of digits (some 30) is created so the computer can recognise a child when he/she places their fingerprint on a scanner. The data stored can be interoperable with Automated Fingerprint Identification Systems (AFIS) used by police and other agencies to store fingerprint data.
It is claimed to be impossible to reconstruct a finger print from biometric readers, although research in 2007 was undertaken and the paper 'From Template to Image: Reconstructing Fingerprints from Minutiae Points' was published by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers.
In 2002 the NGO Privacy International raised an alert that tens of thousands of UK school children were being fingerprinted by schools, often without the knowledge or consent of their parents. In 2002, the supplier Micro Librarian Systems, which use a technology similar to that used in US prisons and the German military, estimated that 350 schools throughout Britain were using such systems, to replace library cards. In 2007, it was estimated that 3,500 schools (ten times more) are using such systems. By 2009 the number of children fingerprinted was estimated to be two million.