Schools Scanned Students' Irises Without Permission

schwit1 writes "Parents in Polk County, Florida are outraged after learning that students in area schools had their irises scanned as part of a new security program without obtaining proper permission. Two days before their Memorial Day weekend break, kids from at least three different public schools — Bethune Academy (K–5), Davenport School of the Arts (K–5, middle, and high school), and Daniel Jenkins Academy (grades 6–12) — were subjected to iris scans without their parents' knowledge or consent. The scans are essentially optical fingerprints, which the school intended to collect to create a database of biometric information for school-bus security."

Comments

s/Freedom/Security/g

[Gothmolly]

You'll lose both, and deserve neither.

Re:s/Freedom/Security/g

[Anonymous Coward]

You'll lose both, and deserve neither.

The dead horse is starting to stink. keep beating, though, if it makes you happy.

We are a police state in the US now. The excuses are terrorism, drugs, child porn, whatever - and there's a loud minority of people who want that shit and a silent majority who just grumble on the rare occasions when it bothers them - like having their nail file being confiscated at the TSA checkpoint.

Those of us who saw it coming have lost. There is nothing to do now except wait for the day that it gets so bad - if ever - that regular people start pressuring their politicians to put the cat back in the bag. I have given up. I point and say, "This is where we are headed!" and I get the look of a cow chewing in its cud.

John Q. Public is worried about his job and his standard of living. He has his big screen TV for his football games that he got on sale for $799 and is estatic but there's this niggling feeling that he's getting poorer. His salary hasn't gone down but he's feels poorer. More money comes out of his pocket for health care, groceries cost a bit more, and it costs $30 more to fill his tank - even though there's an oil boom in the US right now.

And we expect him to care about about some pissant Florida town that's scanning the irises of kids eyes for "security".

Re:s/Freedom/Security/g

[Dishevel]

You know what would keep children REALLY safe?
Put POV cameras on everyone in the world. Have all of that accessible to law enforcement.
Now the children will be safe. Put yours on first.

Re:s/Freedom/Security/g

[Aryden]

Whether you think the program is good or bad is irrelevant. The issue at hand is, they did this to minors without permission from the parents or notification to them.

But seriously though, why would you need iris scans of kids? Their reasoning is to track the students getting on and off the buses, replacing the identification cards that they students carry now. Oh wait, ALL of the kids had the scans done. What about the kids that do not ride the buses, the ones that walk or have parents/guardians pick them up and drop them off everyday. Not only are they invading the privacy by collecting personal information from a minor without consent, but they are removing a valuable lesson in responsibility, as well as collecting this data for people that will not or do not use the system at all.

What's more, the article says that all of the students went through the program, but you're telling me that there were no students at all that objected? I find it hard to believe that there were high school students involved and no one said "no".

How are you going to react when the police come door to door installing biometric scanners and requiring you to scan in/out each time you leave the house, walk into/out of a building, get into/out of your car?

Re:s/Freedom/Security/g

[noh8rz10]

it forwards everything to google for cataloging and crossreferenicng and advertising. then feds get a warrant and its game over for privacy, as the brits say.

Re:s/Freedom/Security/g

[ArsonSmith]

Umm, because "Oil is not a local industry. Prices are international"

scanning students for bus?

[iggymanz]

pro-tip: when buses are hijacked or children kidnapped, it will be an adult that does it. As for recognizing kids, the driver can work off a paper with thumbnail pictures

Re:scanning students for bus?

[fuzzyfuzzyfungus]

pro-tip: when buses are hijacked or children kidnapped, it will be an adult that does it. As for recognizing kids, the driver can work off a paper with thumbnail pictures

I wouldn't put it past some of the older students(grades 6-12 certainly would include a few) to be overtly dangerous; but some iris-scanning nonsense also entirely fails to address that, since a student will be an authorized user and sail right through...

It really doesn't make much sense at all. Even if you wanted to play some electronic-orwell attendance tracking game, iris scanning is both expensive and invasive compared to, say, mag stripes on student IDs.

Is somebody's cousin the vendor? Does somebody in admin or on the school board jerk off to Minority Report every night?

Re:scanning students for bus?

[ShanghaiBill]

As for recognizing kids, the driver can work off a paper with thumbnail pictures

I am having a hard time understanding why even this is necessary. What problem are they trying to solve? If my daughter wants to go to a friend's house after school, she gets on her friend's schoolbus with her and goes to her house. Some of her friends occasionally ride her bus to our house. The bus driver didn't ask or care. So far this has resulted in no deaths or maiming.

 

Re:scanning students for bus?

[Nickodeimus]

...and it takes one law or event like 9/11 to change that. This is the problem with almost all government overreach. It starts out as a benign "think of the children" scenario and turns into something that is monstrous because some law perverts what was originally intended.

Re:scanning students for bus?

[gstoddart]

And yet, once this information is in the hands of a private entity or even a government entity, the DHS can demand it under the Patriot Act and not tell anybody.

At this point, you pretty much have to assume that anything ever collected about you can end up in the hands of government if they decide they want it.

Imagine a world in which children have all of their biometric data collected and cataloged before they can even spell biometric -- because it seems to be happening.

I sincerely hope there are some pretty harsh legal penalties for this, and that the companies are ordered to destroy the data. A school board has no business doing this kind of thing without parental consent. This is just blatant stupidity and over-reaching.

Re:scanning students for bus?

[geekmux]

mag stripes on student IDs.

You're underestimating the extent to which the kids will subvert a system.

Yes, and I'm also failing to understand why any of this shit is truly necessary, since it would appear for the most part (99.9999999% statistically?), over the last 50+ years of busing students to/from school, this hasn't been a justified necessity until now, in an era where taxpayers can be bent over at will to pay for greased palm programs.

And we're stupid and apathetic enough to re-elect them.

Where are these parents

[Hatta]

Where are these parents when it's time to protest actual privacy violations?

Re:Where are these parents

[smooth wombat]

Cheering on the TSA and hooting it up for the Patriot Act.

Overkill Much?

[sargon666777]

Really? We need military levels of record keeping to keep track of school children getting on busses? Seems wasteful, and overkill.. If you need an ID (which I dont think you should for school busses) then a simple picture ID should do.. Growing up my bus driver (and the kids) knew all the kids getting on and off anyhow..

Re:Overkill Much?

[PolygamousRanchKid]

We need military levels of record keeping to keep track of school children getting on buses?.

Follow the money. Whoever implemented the system for a juicy fee probably has good connections to the school board.

The whole thing sounds like boondoggle pork to me.

I have done no such thing

[Anonymous Coward]

The problem is that I'm not the one "trading" my freedom for security. The concept is illogical. But wait, you say. You've been taught your entire life that each citizen voluntarily "trades" his freedom for the benefits of being subject to coercive authority. In other words, a citizen volunteers to be subject to coercion. (This is precisely what the "social contract" theory claims when reduced to its core meaning.) Read over that a few times, and see if you can spot the problem. Hint: This will require you to think for yourself.

Here's the problem. The two modes of human interaction, voluntary association and coercion, are mutually exclusive and polar opposite -- that is exactly what gives them meaning. If coercion occurs, then voluntary association is absent -- by definition. If voluntary association occurs, than coercion is absent -- by definition.

A man cannot volunteer himself to be subject to coercion, just as he cannot force (coerce) another man into volunteering.

Therefore it is impossible to "trade" or "forfeit" one's freedom. This is more than just semantics. This is a law of human nature, and the laws of human nature cannot be changed through force of arms (i.e. government).

Re:s/Freedom/nothing/g

[darkonc]

Security?? WHAT security?

If some kid is intent on shooting the driver and everybody else on the bus, do you really think (s)he's gonna stop for an eye exam before going hog wild?

And if it's some PTSD-suffering ex-marine blowing up the bus, it's gonna be the same situation -- even if the attacker DOES stop to look in the scanner.

In this case, you get NOTHING for your lost freedom: no security, no safety, no real knowledge after the fact ...

NOTHING

Well, both the contractor and the school are happy

[fufufang]

This iris scan device is expensive, ineffective and excessive.

But there are money for the contractors, bribe for the school administrators. Everyone is happy, right?

Re:s/Freedom/nothing/g

[serviscope_minor]

If some kid is intent on shooting the driver and everybody else on the bus, do you really think (s)he's gonna stop for an eye exam before going hog wild?

And even if he does stop for the eye exam what will it confirm? The columbine killers were both students at the school they shot up (surprise!), so such a system wouldn't have stopped them.

Database thinks, yep, Harris and Klebold are on the bus.

Re:Iris scan vs. photo-ID

[GoogleShill]

The book Database Nation, published in 2000, shows a shocking set of pictures where a pole-mounted camera was able to perform iris recognition on a person driving 60 MPH down the freeway. That's at least 13 year old technology.

So yes, iris recognition can be used to track people in public areas, without their knowledge.