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Big Brother In the School Cafeteria?

AustinSlacker writes "An Iowa school district's lunch program asks children as young as 5 years old to memorize a four-digit PIN code so it can monitor what they eat in the school cafeteria - prompting some parents to claim it's an unhealthy case of 'Big Brother.' An over reaction by parents or an unnecessary invasion of privacy?"

4 of 425 comments (clear)

  1. Who cares by Anrego · · Score: 0, Flamebait

    This type of stuff really trips my “who cares” switch. Aside from slippery slope arguments and general “right to privacy” statements I find it hard to think of a scenario where I would really care if “the man” or “the corporation” knew what I was eating.

    Hell, even if they attached my name to it and sold it to every market research company in the world, I can’t think how this negatively impacts me. Even less so what I ate as a kid.

    I know I sound like a shill here.. but I’m a consumer. I buy and consume stuff. Corporations profit by selling me stuff. I generally don’t mind corporations trying to figure out how to better provide (or dupe me into buying) stuff. They profit, I (usually) benefit.. etc.

    Most of the arguments against these “invasions of privacy” revolve around delusional dystopian worlds where the government uses market data to hunt down people counter to their objectives and drag them from their homes to be put to work in the acid mines.

    We live in reality here people! And your buying habits are not that interesting! There is so much data out there and such a diversity of people, you have to be into some really weird stuff for anyone to take notice. Chances are you are just “person with sexual fetish for office supplies #21342” in aggregate set 143.

  2. Re:indoctrination by Peach+Rings · · Score: 0, Flamebait

    I am intrigued by the sheer possibilities of snobbishness that your declination of a plebian schooling even at a young age implies.

    Or is that an incredibly dodgy way of saying that you dropped out and are currently working a car wash?

  3. Re:Big Brother? Not Quite. by symbolset · · Score: 0, Flamebait

    Some of us don't mind if they fill the automat with candy, pop and paintball ammo. Your snowflakes must be particularly precious.

    --
    Help stamp out iliturcy.
  4. Re:Big Brother? Not Quite. by M8e · · Score: 0, Flamebait

    A healthy meal does not have any food additives either.

    This is a real problem, it's almost impossible to find a meal that don't have any sodium chloride or dihydrogen monoxide added to them. Not to forget all these bad E numbers, for example E100, E101, E161b, E160d and E300 is even added in some "healthfood"!