Implement of facial recognition system in Schools
It was the 18th of October when 9 Schools in UK introduced the facial recognition system for taking lunches payments. The aim was to reduce the queues and limiting the risk of COVID-19. However, some parents and campaigners complained they were not confident in exposing their children in biometric surveillance. David Swanston (Managing Director of CRB Cunninghams) said “It is the fastest way to recognize someone”, so fast that the average transaction time was 5 seconds per pupil. Stating to North Ayrshire council, 97% of the parents gave consented to use the mentioned system. Fraser Sampson (Biometrics Commissioner for England and Wales) complained that facial recognition is not legally covered as DNA and Fingerprints. Therefore, in case of a less intrusive way then it should be used. The campaigners are worried about the possibility of potential unjustified arrests. For this reason, the legislation should implement equal footing as fingerprints and DNA. An independent study found that the mentioned system is 81% accurate. Silkie Carlo (Head of Big Brother) sustain that it is normalizing using biometric identity for something banal it is not necessary the airport-style for children getting their lunch.
There is no possible denying in the speed of the facial recognition system, especially for schools or similar places where the amount of people creates a hard way to process the queues. In my opinion there is a thin line between the fast and the efficient, since a fast system does not always mean efficient. The above summary highlights the positive and negative aspects of the use of technology in schools, but it also gives some serious parameters such as the accurate percentage which is only 81%. Yes, it is true that you do not need a perfect system for just reducing the queues at lunch time schools, but what about the biometric data saved in their programmes? These have a very high risk of being shared since the facial recognition system is not legally covered as DNA and Fingerprints. It is highly underrated the risk of using such biometric data in a world where massive institutions such as Banks get hacked, just imagine what this people might be able to do with school’s data. In conclusion I totally agree with Silkie Carlo, that nowadays an institute as a schools can find a better system then using sensitive data especially speaking about children.