Biometric data collection in schools
Greg Mulholland MP has tabled an Early Day Motion. It calls for government to address the concerns of parents over collection of biometric data in schools. Please write to your MP requesting that they add their name to this motion.
That this House is alarmed at the growing practice of schools collecting and storing the biometric details of children as young as three; notes that up to 3,500 schools use biometric software to record the data of approximately three quarters of a million children; shares parents’ concerns that children’s data, often including photographs and fingerprints, is stored on unregulated data collection systems and potentially insecure school computer networks and could therefore potentially be misused; notes that collecting the data from children under 12 without parental consent directly contravenes the Data Protection Act; believes that no child should have biometric information taken without the express written permission of their parents; further believes that no child should be excluded from school activities where this permission is not forthcoming; welcomes the decision by the Department for Education and Skills to update guidance to local authorities and schools; and calls on the Government to conduct a full and open consultation with stakeholders, including parents and children, on this issue as part of their redrafting process.
Biometric data collection in schools - Greg Mulholland - Early Day Motion 686
For more information see Leave Them Kids Alone and plus we have some more general advice on how to write a letter to your MP.
Our last request for you to write to your MPs over an Early Day Motion on open source software in schools resulted in 124 Signatures from MPs, a great result, lets see if we can do even better this time.
January 29th, 2007 at 6:04 pm
You may want to check that they haven’t already got their name up:
http://edmi.parliament.uk/EDMi/EDMDetails.aspx?EDMID=32367&SESSION=885
I sent my MP a letter and then saw that his name was already there.
The problem with having an MP who agrees with you on most issues is that you can’t write them angry letters asking why they don’t support this or that….
January 29th, 2007 at 6:42 pm
OpenRightsGroup: Biometric Data in Schools…
The OpenRightsGroup is currently campaigning about the collection of biometric data on school children. They are asking us to write to our MPs to ask them to support an House of Parliament motion by Greg Mulholland MP. If you’ve not…
April 7th, 2007 at 3:04 pm
[...] I read with great concern the news that up to 3,500 schools use biometric software to record the data of approximately three quarters of a million children. It is I presumed, the thin end of the wedge, a practice that this government will encourage in their own interest, and another means of gathering personal information.Then I read the item on broken biometric passports in The Register. Apart from a mixture of alarm (that millions of people may get needlessly and interminably stopped at passport control - a service which apparently is destined to slow to a standstill - literally - as biometric data gets checked “Immigration Officers will, until September 2007, have to leave the front desk to undertake additional checks of the digital signature using the readers located in back offices.”) and relief (that the system will never work), I was left with the thought that:… if schools can manage it, perhaps government should consult with them about how it can be done!Of course (I suppose) the school system does not (yet?) involve some form of ID card or passport which stores the child’s details, but at the very least, it must have solved the search and match issues! The Register reports: “we were told by our consultants that the use of current facial recognition technology with two dimensional images (as is the case for ePassports) is not sufficiently reliable to enable fully automated searches even in relatively small databases, and performance is known to decline as database size increases… current facial recognition software cannot be used to check new applications against the entire database of existing ePassport holders.”It also beats me how a government that thinks knowing a criminal’s e-mail address will be an effective means of controlling his/her e-activity (see my last post and Phil Bradley’s longer post) can also see the need for biometric data! Surely all they need is your name?>>Technorati tags: ePassports; government; personal_information; biometric_data>>IceRocket tags: ePassports; government; personal_information; biometric_dataLabels: biometric data, children, ePassports, personal information, schools [...]