School should think again on fingerprints says Doughty

3.31.50pm BST (GMT +0100) Fri 23rd May 2008

Commenting on proposals by Guildford County School to move to a cashless system which would use children's fingerprints to authorise payments for school meals, Sue Doughty said:

"The collection and use of biometric data from children is totally disproportionate to the needs of the school. There are many ways of avoiding the burdensome use of cash which do not rely on holding personal data in this way and the school must now seriously consider alternatives such as swipe cards."

Parents alerted Sue Doughty to their concerns after receiving a letter informing them that the system will be implemented in June.

Sue has met representatives of the school to discuss her concerns and the matter will now go back to the School Governors for further consideration.

Sue said: "Although the data being held is not the actual fingerprint, it is an encoded number based on the fingerprint. All our experience shows that computer systems cannot always be seen to be safe, and although the school has good internal data protection processes, data will be backed up and held off site. There are many ways in which the data can be obtained either through error, or by mal intent and I believe that it is totally inappropriate for the school to collect such information."

The school has told Sue that there will be an option for students to use swipe cards, but Sue commented "This is not realistic. Even if parents disagree with the system, peer pressure tends to mean that kids don't want to be different and are more likely to use the fingerprint system. I'm particularly concerned that those children who qualify for free school meals are less likely to use an opt-out such as packed meals and so can be disadvantaged."

Sue is particularly concerned that the UK government has strayed well outside the EU convention on the Rights of the Child. She said "It is worrying that I am being repeatedly told that lots of schools in the UK are going down this route, but this is not the point.

"Outside the US there is no other country in the world that is collecting so much data about our children and one has to ask why this is happening. In fact, Britain is the only country in Europe to use biometric technology extensively in schools. Such systems are banned in France.

"It is far better to be cautious at this stage rather than worry some years later about why so much personal data is spreading around government and commercial organisations."

Related Link:

Action for Rights of the Child report.