BIG BROTHER HAS SEEN MY WHORLS & RIDGES:

Learning to Live With Biometrics (Claudia Graziano, Sep. 09, 2003, Wired)

It's the first day of school and Matt Miller, director of food services for Penn Cambria schools, sits at a table next to the registration desk, collecting digital images of students' fingerprints with a portable scanner.

The line of students waiting to be scanned is short; Miller is there mostly to scan students who've recently transferred to the district and returning students who must be rescanned due to a growth spurt.

Students tend to need rescanning in the fifth and ninth grades, Miller said, because their fingers have matured to the point where the scanners can no longer quickly identify them.

Students see the scanning, which allows them to purchase school lunches without using cash, as no big deal. It has been a part of their lives for five years now. Of the 3,000 or so students who attend one of Penn Cambria's five schools, fewer than 1 percent opt out of the scanning
system, Miller said. He doesn't know whether they opt out for religious beliefs or some other reason, but the school doesn't press for answers.

The Cresson, Pennsylvania, school district isn't the only one in America using biometric technology in cafeterias. Similar systems are in use at schools all over the country. [...]

Use of biometric ID systems has been on the rise in the private sector for some time. Companies from Hertz to Pepsi use finger-, hand- or iris-scanning systems to identify employees and sometimes customers. This year, biometrics system revenues will top $928 million, according
to the International Biometric Group. In 2004, sales are expected to top $1.5 billion.

Not surprisingly, privacy advocates are worried about the use of biometrics in public schools, where minors are the ones being scanned.

At best, the technology is overkill and a waste of taxpayer money, said Chris Hoofnagle, associate director of the Electronic Privacy Information Center in Washington, D.C. At worst, it sets a dark precedent, conditioning students at a young age to embrace the idea of Big Brother-style biometric tracking. "If ever there was a generation that would not oppose a government system for universal ID, it's this one," he said.

Good. It's ridiculous that there's no national ID.

Posted by Orrin Judd at September 10, 2003 09:04 AM