David Clouter (Cambridge, LeaveThemKidsAlone): Yesterday it was reported that schools will be given guidance on how to use and store pupils' biometric information, such as fingerprints. UK schools started fingerprinting children in around 2002. Quietly encouraged by central Government, parents were not generally informed. By 2007, more than 5,000 schools have fingerprinted children, some as young as five. More than 20 firms now sell school biometric systems, some costing as much as £25,000.
School systems store fingerprint templates, the lifelong key to a person's identity. Within 10 years these will be used to authenticate bank accounts and passports. World-renowned security experts argue that schools cannot possibly hold these securely and Microsoft identity Architect Kim Cameron has said that "It is absolutely premature to begin using conventional biometrics in schools".
The parents' campaign LeaveThemKidsAlone.com was founded in 2006 in an attempt to get the process regulated. Yet after more than a year of intense lobbying, the best the Government was prepared to come up with was weak guidance on a non-government website advising that "as they judge appropriate, schools may also wish to seek their own legal advice on these matters". Schools are advised that they do not need to seek parental consent before fingerprinting children.
In 2006, Roderick Woo, Justice of the Peace at the Hong Kong Office of the Privacy Commissioner, ordered a school to stop fingerprinting children. "It was a contravention of our law, which is very similar to your law, which is that the function of the school is not to collect data in this manner, that it was excessive and that there was a less privacy-intrusive method to use." The Irish Data Protection Commissioner has been quick to issue comprehensive guidelines on the use of biometrics in schools. It stresses the need to obtain signed consent and a clear and unambiguous right to opt out of such systems without penalty.
This month the UK's Information Commissioner wrote (pdf) that "It has even been suggested that fingerprinting in schools is part of a concerted attempt to 'soften up' the younger generation for increased state privacy intrusion, including initiatives such as ID cards and DNA testing."
We urge the Government to compel schools to seek explicit parental consent before they are allowed to take children's fingerprints.
