Fingerprint scanning at elementary school for lunch. Not informed or given a chance to opt out.

Tonight while putting my kindergartener to bed we were discussing school. He told me that he has to scan his fingerprint (thumb) if he wants to eat lunch at school. WHAT!? I wasn't sure if he was telling me the truth, as he's at the age where imagination runs wild and when I prodded him more the story got a little convoluted where he told me he had to scan all his fingers (still have to verify this one). Anyways, I know he wouldn't have just made up the thumb print thing so I went to the school website to see if I could find out more information and there was nothing that I could find. I clicked on the links for lunch and they were broken for some reason. So I do some digging at what do you know, I found THIS article from 4 days ago. Further to read I see that my son is actually in one of the mentioned school districts participating in this fingerprint scanning deal.

I think what I'm most upset about is that I was not given any notification or asked for my permission for them to just go around taking his biometric data. In the precarious digital age we are living in, where hackers can steal a persons identity and wreak havoc, not to mention other possible nefarious uses it just really bothers me.

When I became a US citizen this year, I had to give up all my biometric information. The difference here is that I consented, as a grown adult, to release that information in exchange for becoming a US citizen. I also have an expectation (probably unfounded) that the government will handle my biometrics in such a way as to protect my identity from hackers etc. I don't want to imagine what protocols are not in place to protect the biometric data of children at a local school district. My child is 5 years old, and therefore does not have the mental capacity to decide whether or not he should give up this personal data and to whom, and what it is worth giving up for. What in exchange does he get? A free lunch?! That is the value they have placed on my sons biometric data.

Do any of you other parents have experience with this? I contacted my sons teacher for clarification and more information as I only just found out about this tonight. Not really sure how I should go about dealing with this, or if there is anything I can even do seeing as I have zero information (at least from his school) about it, only what I can gather from the article.

Today, if someone hacks one of your online accounts you just change your password. If someone steals your bank card, you just cancel it and get another one and so on. But if someone managed to steal and use your biometric data you can’t change your fingerprints. You can’t alter your retinas or modify your DNA. The fact that these characteristics are fixed is why they are used in crime detection, but using them for information security is dubious. Worst still you leave a biometric trail wherever you go, everything you touch, every piece of skin or hair that falls leaves biometric information about you. Again that is why it is so useful for solving crimes, but you wouldn’t go around leaving fragments of your passwords everywhere would you?

www.androidauthority.com...

Lawyer up now.

Jesus.

Edit..i agree with Phage, don't go commando until you can confirm they did this.

Not really sure how I should go about dealing with this,

I would wait to actually know more about it before dealing with anything.

a reply to: seeker11

Well back in the 70's it was for disapeared purposes. But WTAF! So is this a way to bypass a RFID?
Why threat with food?

They want three things on every citizen.

DNA
Finger Prints and
Facial recognition.

In ten years time, they need a patsy for any operation it could be your child. All they need to do is substitute your child's info for the actual perpetrator.

It is coming soon to your very own police state.

P

a reply to: Phage

Ok you are here.

Whats your honest take.☺

a reply to: Phage
Solid advice.

I'm waiting for a response from his teacher (not that his teacher has anything to do with it but she is my first point of contact and will most likely be able to direct me to the proper channels). I'm not in the habit of creating a disturbance, I'm not a confrontational person by nature unless something is very important to me. I did need to vent a little on here though and also to see if anyone else has come across this, if it's more commonplace than I'm aware of.

I would like to for sure find out how this information is stored, and for how long, and if we 'opt out' by sending him his own lunch every day, if the information gets erased or deleted permanently.

Also would really like to see if they will change their policy to at least inform parents and ask for consent. I think that's a very important thing.

a reply to: seeker11
Does your child have a social security number? (rhetorical)

We are all "tracked", some more so than others, for various reasons.

Retinal scans, iris scans, fingerprints. Upgrades from signatures. Makes sense, since kids don't learn to actually write anymore. My daughter, a freshman, has been working on her signature. It's hideous.

Yet another fine example of why we homeschool.

a reply to: seeker11



No, I would not like that in the least. Thank you for bringing it to my attention so I can call the school and see if it's
happening around here.
I'm not too keen on you having to give it all up when you became a citizen, either. The Gov. knew all they needed to know about you already or you would not have gotten to that point in the process. I wonder what kind of carrot and stick
game are they going to use to get that information from the rest of us?

I think it's wrong to do this without YOUR consent.
Thing is, everyone is being stored in a data base now.

a reply to: JDeLattre89

What're we going to do when Uncle Samuel comes around,
Asking for the young one's name?
Looking for the print of his hand,
For a file in their numbers game.

1970?

a reply to: Phage

Of course, I get that, and I get that it's only going to increase as time goes on. But for such a valuable piece of information as a persons biometrics, I just think it is the right thing to at least have a persons informed consent before acquiring. Of course what I think has really no affect on what actually happens, as convenience will most likely win out in the end.

a reply to: Phage

I made my signature hideous on purpose. It's so I can do it in one second and it's hard to forge. You can't actually read what my name is.

originally posted by: Mandroid7
Lawyer up now.

Jesus.

Edit..i agree with Phage, don't go commando until you can confirm they did this.

Edit...? I want my star back.


Seeker11 Call the school and if you don't get satisfaction in a prompt manner, then call some lawyers.

a reply to: ezramullins

then call some lawyers.

Always good advice.

a reply to: Phage

I heard some schools are bringing back cursive. I had no idea that many had eliminated it.
I suspect it may eventually end up off the menu again and we will have experts in the future translating old documents. Hey I may have found my future calling!

a reply to: seeker11

No one has ever been able to read my handwriting.
Ask my 3rd grade teacher, Miss Fujii. She'll tell you.

But my signature is me, all me.

a reply to: seeker11

I am concerned that school officials were too naive to see this as a major privacy issue. It also seems like the kids are being conditioned to give up this personal information without questioning it so in the future it will just be 'normal' to them.

I am sure that alphabet agencies are loving this.

When I was in grade school in the early 80's. The local police department would go around to kindergarten classes and finger print all the kids. It was suppose to be for fun , or they said. I still remember that day.

The school did not send anything home to my parents either to notify them of what was happening. I do not think they have done that now for long time here. But in the late 70's and early 80's they did, atleast in my area.