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Students In UK Tracked With RFID Chips

Posted by kdawson on from the sees-you-when-you're-sleeping dept.

An anonymous reader writes "Ten kids in a pilot program in the Hungerhill School in Edenthorpe, England will participate in a program that puts RFID chips in students' uniforms to keep track of their whereabouts. A group called 'Leave Them Kids Alone' is opposing the program. Bruce Schneier blogs: '...Now it's easy to cut class; just ask someone to carry your shirt around the building while you're elsewhere.'"

6 of 214 comments (clear)

  1. Well by moogied · · Score: 3, Interesting

    I think this is a very responsible use of "human monitoring". Its voluntary, its in there CLOTHES, and its only useful at school. Something like this I can understand. Now I did not RTFA, but I hope this is only used at exits/entrances to the school grounds. Just as a way of telling if they are there or not. Could be very useful in fire drills, bomb threaths, and lock downs. To tell who is at the school still, or left.

    --
    So basically, -1 troll/offtopic is really slashdots way of saying "I hate that you thought of something before me."
    1. Re:Well by Iftekhar25 · · Score: 2, Interesting

      I was involved with a start-up company in Singapore trying to sell RFID solutions to schools for tracking children.

      The school we were pitching to were interested at first, but didn't make the jump once they discovered it was "experimental." In hindsight, it was a good thing, because the start-up I was working for lacked the expertise to pull it off.

      But I agree with the parent; it's responsible so long as it's used within the school premises. Children aren't the same as adults, and otherwise draconian practices are part and parcel of raising kids.

      This isn't a privacy issue, but on the contrary, an example of the application of technology to save many man-hours of tedious attendance-taking and embarrassingly mis-pronounced names.

    2. Re:Well by SteveAyre · · Score: 2, Interesting

      "The kids are supposed to learn how to be responsible, make their own decisions, and generally become members of the society. They cannot learn that while knowing they are under a constant surveillance with no way to escape."

      Strange, with the amount of CCTV and data mining around lately that sounds like pretty good practice for when they become adult members of our current society.

    3. Re:Well by jamie(really) · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Alternatively, there is a fire and the RFID system says everyone was beeped out of the gate because little Johnny is carrying little Jimmy's shirt, while Jimmy burns to death alone and confused.

      Or a firefighter dies rescuing a shirt, when its owner is outside having a smoke (maybe even caused the fire).

      There are two fundamental problems with this system - forget the moral implications - just stick to the facts.

      1. Automation breeds complacency.

      2. Kids are not fucking stupid.

      Complacency is fine if the system really is foolproof: it works and it does what each user expects. Unfortunately, this system is not.

      I advocate a campaign of civil disobedience where everyone carries around RFID transmitters that give out incorrect information. While we're on the subject, I would also advocate putting everyone's finger prints online and offering a service to print copies of other peoples finger prints onto gel pads. If the government wants to store private details, the only way to stop them is by making them not-private.

  2. Zeitgeist by amplusquem · · Score: 2, Interesting

    It's happening:

    http://www.zeitgeistmovie.com/

  3. No big deal by BadAnalogyGuy · · Score: 2, Interesting

    1) Kids still need to have a physical presence. If they are not in attendance, but their shirt seems to be walking around the school, then it is clear that they have deliberately tried to circumvent the requirement to be in school during school hours.

    2) RFID is only an identifier, not a tracker. For someone to actively track a kid, they'd still have to follow the tried and true method of skulking and bush-hiding and slow van driving.

    I made the comment earlier that SecurityFocus and Bruce Schneier were causing more damage than good due to chicken-little-ism and this kind of reactionary idiocy. The "security experts" are fighting against Big Brother, but that's not where the security problems lie. Big Brother, at any time, can subpoena all your stuff and any security measures you've taken are for naught. It's the people who don't have the legal power to require you to open up that you need to be secure from. RFID does not make you any less secure because it doesn't increase your "securable surface area". It requires the same proximity that sight does, and if you're that close to danger already, then your risk quotient is too high to be affected by RFID.