Several schools in Scotland have started using facial recognition software to cut down lunch queue waiting times. Several schools in Ayrshire are set to implement a new way for school children to pay for their meals. The system scans the faces of the children at the tills and checks them off against the register of faces stored on the school’s servers, it is said that this replaces the old system of fingerprint scanners.
How many parents knew that their children were being fingerprinted, let alone having their faces scanned and stored on a server? Of course, this looks to have nothing whatsoever to do with countering the lunchtime rush and has everything to do with the rights and freedoms being eroded.
The company who installed the system claim they are more covid secure and help speed up queue, with each transaction now taking just five seconds. The Financial Times reported.
What happened to the Rights of the Child? Article 16 clearly states “Every child has the right to privacy. The law must protect children’s privacy, family and home, communications, and reputation (or good name) from any attack.
How can having a child’s face scanned and stored on a server protect their privacy?
Why was a system that is a clear invasion of privacy been permitted? Who authorised it? And were parents informed?
Scotland is headed down a very slippery slope. Children attend school to be taught not for the convenience of those who wish to shorten a lunch queue. This should outrage every parent, grandparent, and guardian; sadly however, I fear it will go the same way as everything else. Schools will overrule the parents and the invasion of privacy will be allowed to continue.
Categories: Political
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