[privacy] Halt to school fingerprinting

[Gordon Darling <gordondarling () dsl pipex com>]

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/11/09/hongkong_kiddyprinting/

> From El Reg

China strikes blow for privacy
By Mark Ballard
Published Thursday 9th November 2006 16:24 GMT

The Hong Kong privacy commissioner has ordered a school to stop
fingerprinting children before it becomes a runaway trend that is too
late to stop.

The school, in the Kowloon District, installed the system last year, but
under the order of the Hong Kong Privacy Commission has ripped it out
and destroyed all the fingerprint data they had taken from children

Roderick Woo, Justice of the Peace at the Hong Kong Office of the
Privacy Commissioner, told El Reg he had decided to examine the issue
immediately the first school installed a fingerprint reader to take
registers in his jurisdiction.

And, he decided: "It was a contravention of our law, which is very
similar to your law, which is that the function of the school is not to
collect data in this manner, that it was excessive and that there was a
less privacy-intrusive method to use."

In other words, he said, what better way is there for a teacher to take
a register than to look around the class, note who's missing, and take
down their names for the record. Measuring fingerprints seemed a little
over the top for the task in hand, which translated into terms
understood by privacy laws, means that the use of information technology
was not proportionate to the task in hand.

He also looked at the need of schools to get consent from either pupils
or parents before they took fingerprints at class registration. This is
an avenue being considered by parents in the UK who want to challenge
schools that have taken their children's fingerprints without parental
consent. Britain's Information Commissioner has said it might be enough
for a school to get the consent of a child before taking its
fingerprints.

Woo, however, decided otherwise: "I considered the consent of the staff
and pupils rather dubious, because primary school's consent in law
cannot be valid and there's undue influence. If the school says, 'give
up your fingerprint', there's no way of negotiating."

"Also it's not a good way to teach our children how to give privacy
rights the consideration they deserve," he added.

That is another fear expressed by some parents opposed to their children
being fingerprinted, even when the majority of the systems in use are
much more primitive than those used in criminal investigations.

The Hong Kong Office of the Privacy Commissioner ordered that the school
remove the fingerprint system it had already installed to take
registers. This might discourage other schools from installing similar
systems without careful consideration and prevent a rush of school
fingerprinting as has occurred in Britain.

However, Woo did note rule that other schools could not fingerprint
their children for other purposes.

"That's not to say I'm opposed to any fingerprint scanning systems. I
will look at any complaint on a case by case basis. It's not an anti
hi-tech attitude I take," he said.®

-- 
gordondarling<at>dsl<dot>pipex<dot>com

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