Fingerprint Systems Meet Scrutiny in UK Schools

Fingerprint systems for school children? Have we gone a little too Big-Brother? That's what people are asking in the UK, where biometric identification of school children is on the rise.  Already more than a quarter of Scotland students are being identified this way - having to use thumbprints to access restrooms, acquire library books, obtain lunch and even check in their attendance throughout the day.  And even more schools have the capability and are yet to start using it.
 
The use of tracking mechanisms is poised to become mainstream within the British education system -- that is, as long as the critics don't get their way.  And there are plenty.  Parents and legislators alike are arguing that this unnecessary breach of minors' privacies is not only dehumanizing, but is also in violation of EU laws.
 

Salford University Researcher Dr Emmeline Taylor found that in 2010, 3,500 schools in the UK — one in seven — are using fingerprint technology.  It is evidently gaining acceptance even though the dissenters are expressly against the practice.

 

It is not so offensive as the RFID chips that are being used in school children’s ID cards in Texas and California (people have likened this to the tracking of cattle or warehouse inventory).  Yet still, there seems to be no logical reason why children as young as 4 need to be exposed to thinking that the government will be tracking their every move throughout their lives.

 

Many feel that just because the technology and efficiencies exist, there is no reason to replace human involvement and physical monitoring (not to mention ‘teaching’) of our children with them.  Are the schools so surplused with budget money that this was the expenditure of choice? I am sure we could all think of a few other, more education-centric ways to spend this.

 

What do you think? Leave us a comment below  telling us how you feel about the biometric tracking of school children.

Biometric Fingerprint Systems Not Just For Use in Law Enforcement

Of all the biometric techniques available now – from vein recognition to iris recognition to facial recognition – fingerprinting is the oldest and most well-known.  Not just for use in crime scene investigation or heavily secured laboratories anymore, biometric devices are being widely employed throughout various industries now. 
 
While fingerprinting may have started as simply a component of suspect processing and identification within law enforcement scenarios, its use has been used for far more mainstream activities over the past decades. Personal laptops now even come with fingerprint scanners built right into the keyboard. Cars are now being introduced with fingerprint access, to further reduce the “burden” of getting into your car, say, without your keys or remembering a numeric code.
 
Fingerprint recognition is also being used in health club settings for access controol; in places where multiple users log onto shared computers or networks; and as part of a unique identifier for financial transactions. More and more everyday activities involve types of biometric security. Now that the application of these methods continues to expand, we wonder how accurate is it?

Each person has unique, immutable fingerprints. The patterns of our ridges and furrows, as well as our minutiae points, make our fingerprints different from everyone else’s. These make us uniquely quantifiable and verify our identity for security purposes.
 
Some fingerprint systems stop at these measurements, as that is what makes a system AFIS compliant.  But the true leaders in this market take it even further. The most successful technology companies incorporate palm prints, vein recognition, and flexible recording options into a comprehensive fingerprint system, where breaching is practically unheard of.  Add a more than 100,000 record database, varied search capabilities and 100% non-manual interaction, and the risk of unreliability is extremely diminished.
 
While no system is ever 100% infallible, the right combination of screening methods can provide utmost security and authenticity. And nothing happens in a vacuum. Human interaction, in addition to state of the art gadgets is the best way to protect against vulnerability.  After all, that’s what happens when I lose my car keys – I call someone on my very high-tech phone.

Fingerprint System In Use at Nationwide Health Club

Fingerprint Systems aren't just for use in the law enforcement industry.  One national fitness club, 24 Hour Fitness, has employed fingerprint systems for access in its more than 400 nationwide clubs. Now, with the scan of a finger (along with a 10-digit code, to ensure enhanced security), members can enter the facility without having to show their ID cards.

Of course, with any security advancement, there are two sides to this debate.  Proponents claim that convenience, environmental benefits (the club will no longer have to supply almost a million plastic membership cards) and cost savings are significant enough to justify this new technique.  But, those against this "Big Brother-type" program fear that their privacy is at stake. 

  Some feel that biometric devices that employ fingerprint, iris, voice or facial recognition are subject to hacking and therefore are not protected.  But 24 Hour Fitness counters this argument with the implementation of the unique code, along with the fingerprint scan.  And it even goes further as to encrypt a snapshot of the fingerprint ridgese into a binary code that is more secure and protected than the whole fingerprint may be.

  I don't know about you, but heading to the gym without my ID card sounds pretty appealing, and I'm not too worried about what trainers are going to with my BMI and rep counts.  Read the full article and tell us what you think.

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