To obtain information regarding the use of biometrical technology on students, the group called Big Brother Watch sent Freedom of Information Requests to more than 3,000 schools across the UK, but only 1,255 schools responded to the requests.
"As we are now one term into the 2013-14 academic year, and expect the number of schools using the technology to have increased over the summer, and the secondary school population now above 3.2 million, if the number of secondary schools using biometric technology increased from 25 percent to 30 percent, more than one million children would be fingerprinted," Big Brother Watch report says.
According to the study, in nearly one third of the cases, English law was broken, because parental consent was not sought.
“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 report noted.
The report suggests that the collected data should be destroyed after children finish school. It also says that children should be able to refuse the request by school for their biometric data to be recorded.
“I think it’s really necessary for schools to be transparent, especially when it’s relating to very sensitive personal information,” Emma Carr, deputy director of Big Brother Watch, said.
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Quelle/Source: Press TV, 12.01.2014
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