Big Brother fears in UK schools*

By Cameron Hay
Published: 29 September, 2007

KIDS as young as five are having their fingerprints taken at a city
school – just so they can borrow library books!

A politician and a civil liberties group have raised serious concerns
about the capture of personal data, which has been likened to the novel
1984, where everyone's movements are tracked and monitored.

But the pupils at Drakies Primary School where the £1,000 biometric
system is installed see the system as a "game" and have been embracing
the "James Bond-like" technology.

Currently the Inverness school is the only one in the Highlands to use
the Junior Librarian biometric system, but sceptics fear it is another
step down the road to the future depicted by George Orwell in his novel.

Danny Alexander, MP for Inverness East, Nairn, Badenoch and Strathspey
expressed his worries regarding the use of the biometric data at the
Drumossie Avenue school.

The Lib Dem politician told the Highland News: "I am deeply concerned
that this practice is coming to schools in the Highlands. Liberal
Democrats have consistently spoken out against this in Parliament, and I
will be asking the council to clarify its policy."

Mr Alexander added: "Collecting finger-print data from children – even
for apparently harmless administrative purposes – is not something that
should be taken lightly.

"Personal data, once recorded in electronic form, is potentially
accessible for a wide range of purposes. I am totally unconvinced that
schools need to adopt this approach. New technology can achieve a lot,
but it must not be allowed to erode civil liberties for the sake of
convenience.

"We should think very carefully about whether we want to encourage
primary age children to regard it as normal to have this kind of data
taken from them and used routinely."

The new system means youngsters at the school can borrow books without
the need for a card, by pressing their thumb on to the machine that
reads their print.

According to a Highland Council spokeswoman, the system was chosen to
make it easier for children borrowing books.

She added: "We take the recording of personal data most seriously and
for school pupils, parents' permission is sought. This involvement is
evidence of the message that personal data matters.

"It is recognised that the library use of biometric systems such as
automated fingerprint identification systems has been linked emotively
by some with other biometric operations such as fingerprinting
criminals. However, the library use has been viewed positively by the
young people who have used the system.

"The council will continue to evaluate all appropriate technologies when
deploying systems. The scanned fingerprint image is not stored or
retained but a subset of the unique features extracted and converted
into a biometric template which is stored as a binary number. It is not
possible to generate a fingerprint image from the template."

Despite her comments, a spokeswoman for the National Policing
Improvement Agency said: "If the police have reason to suspect a child
has committed a crime then as part of their investigation with
permission of the school and the parent, the police can request access
to the data if they have reason to believe it will help them with their
investigation."

A single parent of two pupils at Drakies Primary School spoke of his
horror when he read a letter detailing the biometric system.

The man, who did not want to be named, said: "This is quite outrageous.
It is almost worse than a breach of civil liberties. Do we really need
such an intrusive system to track tatty old library books? What is the
matter with a manual system?

He added: "I do know a lot of parents will get the letter and probably
not read it. If they stop to think about this they might realise the
consequences of allowing such a system.

"It is another example of big brother collecting information on us. What
next?"

He added: "To the children this all seems like a game or like something
they have seen on James Bond whereas it is a lot more serious than that.
It teaches them not to respect her own civil liberties at a young age."

A spokeswoman for Liberty, an independent human rights organisation
questioned whether the introduction of such a system, which is already
popping up at other schools across the UK, could be properly regulated.

She said: "Unfortunately these fingerprint schemes may be using
technology just for the sake of it and without proper regulation.

"Before schemes like this become the norm we must question if the
biometric data of children is being shared, has permission been sought
from parents, and is there truly no alternative?"