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Fingerprints for School Lunches

Posted by michael on from the mystery-meat dept.

arkansas writes "CNN has a report about a new program in a few Pennsylvania schools in which students' fingerprints are used to pay for school lunches. The system's manufacturers claim the info can't be used to identify students, but the ACLU has some complaints."

3 of 46 comments (clear)

  1. My viewpoint by macdaddy · · Score: 3
    I can kinda see where the ACLU is going with this. Personally if I was a kid in one of those schools, I'd refuse to give them my fingerprint. I don't want anyone to have my fingerprint. To date, no one has officially taken my fingerprint (except once when I was abducted by aliens in Texas but that's another story). I think there should be an opt-out option for those students. Assuming that they'll only fingerprint one finger, what will they do when they can't get that finger's finger print? For example, when I was in high school I broke my hand (not like CowboyNeal falling off the toilet). My hand was in a complete cast, covering the finger tips. Hand to fingerprint plaster. I also had a number of bad cuts for wood and metal shop classes. During wrestling my eigth grade year I had my right sholder wrenched from its socket in wreslting. It tore a muscle and stretched a nerve badly. I couldn't feel my right hand for a month (CowboyNeal isn't ambidextrous from what I hear so he'd probably take his life if he couldn't pleasure himself, or talk Katz into doing it for him). Since I tore that muscle, I couldn't hardly move my right arm when it had to bend at that shoulder, let along raise my arm and hand to place my non-functioning hand and finger in a particular spot. What would they do then?

    In the early years we used tickets to get our lunches. Occasionally someone would forget their ticket and I'd give them one of mine and they'd make up for it the next day. Later on we had these cards we'd scan. Occasionally someone would forget their card and I'd either have the person running the machine scan mine twice or I'd pass my card back and let that person scan it themselves (depending on who was manning the machine). What would they do with a fingerprinting system? I know some principals that would rather the student not get any lunch, regardless of the numerous studies that show how not having a full stomach can affect the learning process, and make them "learn a lesson" than let me pay twice. Sure the kid forgot but give him/her a break.

    To sum it up, I think the school district should provde another option for those students that don't want to give out that fingerprint. One other thought, public institutions are required to make public the information they gather from their students (sounds shity but remember that lawsuit against a school from a parent that wanted to see the schools firewall logs and the school refused? That's what the judge found). If that's the case, than would they have to make my fingerprint public? If that isn't the case, since the school is also a state institution, would they be required to give out my fingerprint to law enforcement (another state agency) if I'm accused of a crime, even without proof that I commited that crime? If they got my fingerprint and found me innocent, would they destroy that fingerprint record for me?

    My $.02

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  2. Aren't facts fun? by lairdb · · Score: 3

    Can't quite tell, either from the CNN story, or from the vendor's page at www.foodserve.com which technology they're using, though it's clearly an optical acquisition.

    [later]

    Food Service provides a pointer to a document describing the process here (wouldn't you like some facts to throw at each other?) including specific discussion of how the data is manipulated in ways that would make it approach zero utility for statist uses. These statements are included:

    • "OK, so can my child's fingerprint data be taken off the MorphoTouch and used to re-create their fingerprint?" No. There is no way for any fingerprint computer, or for that matter, any fingerprint expert, to extract the record and reconstruct a person's fingerprint image from this data. To be clear, there is no possibility of "reverse identification" as it is called in the biometric industry.
    • "But can my child's fingerprint data be taken off the MorphoTouch and used as is on another fingerprinting system?" No. Because of the way the image is evaluated, the resulting record is useless to a forensic application.

    However, it is interesting to note that the apparent OEM, Groupe SAGEM of France, is indeed in the forensic AFIS business.

    Incidental note: when my work involved evaluating several of these fingerprint readers for identification, I was interested to see how many of the vendors took extra trouble to explain that their data was not compatible with forensic AFIS systems.


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    lairdb
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    "...and to everyone else out there, the secret is to bang the rocks together, guys."
  3. Grrr! by Snowfox · · Score: 3

    Okay, kid. Gimme your lunch finger or I dunk ya in the toilet. ...what? Again? DAMN YOU! That threat used ta WORK!