British schools use biometric software to record the data of children

When I was at the LSE conference in London I listened to Terri Dowty that discussed the growing trend on surviellance of children in the UK, starting with kindergarten. I was thus concerned to come across the following article this morning that up to 3,500 schools use biometric software to record the data of approximately three quarters of a million children. Children’s data stored, often include photographs and fingerprints, is stored on unregulated data collection systems and potentially insecure school computer networks and could therefore potentially be misused; notes that collecting the data from children under 12 without parental consent directly contravenes the Data Protection Act.

For more information on what is going on that impacts your children in the UK take a look on Action Rights for Children website (ARCH). For a more global picture take a look at LeaveThemKidsAlone.com