Session 3 – News Article Summary
Nine schools in North Ayrshire are aiming to reduce and potentially eliminate payment queues and minimise contact to reduce the threat of Covid-19 with the use of facial recognition technology. The news of the new payment technology led to criticism from parents and campaigners worrying that they weren’t confident that kids weren’t adequately informed about the privacy risks. When asked about the situation the department of education stated that they do not monitor the use of the technology by schools. In response the North Ayrshire Local council stated that 97 percent of kids and their parents had agreed for the new technology to start being used.
David Swatson, the managing director of CRB Cunninghams which is the company providing the system spoke to the financial times newspaper and stated, ‘that its the fastest way of recognising someone at the till’, he also went on to say that ‘the average transaction time using the system was five seconds per pupil.’ Similar uses of the technology in American schools lead to states such as New York temporally banning the technology . In 2015 Leicestershire Police trialled for the first time the use of live facial recognition systems to enter Download Festival at Donnington Park. With the system being used in a range of environments to identify individuals in crowds such as airports, festivals and other gatherings. The technology has raised many concerns that it exposes people in crowds to potential arrest without reasonable cause, despite the public outcry that the technology was not regulated on an equal footing to other biometrics, and despite potentially being even more invasive, no legislation has been introduced. In a study commissioned by the Metropolitan Police found that the system is 81% inaccurate. The Biometrics Commissioner for England and Wales, Fraser Sampson said if there is a less intrusive way for children to pay for their lunches, then it should be used. Jumping to his defense when asked for his opinion about the situation, the head of Big Brother Watch, Silkie Carlo, said that you don’t need to resort to airport-style [technology] for children getting their lunch.”
In a world where everything is being done by a programme, we resorted to technology even more during Covid-19 when minimum contact between human beings was best, but now after covid and measures very much reduced, we need to go back to the way things were, kids lining up for lunch building different relationships, talking about what’s for lunch or what game they’ll play after school or talking to the lunch lady, the kind of relationships that form different characteristics in kids will be lost with the increase of technology in today’s society.