Angus Council’s education convener has defended a biometric identity system used for school meals, claiming the local authority has never received a complaint about it.
Peter Nield spoke in favour of the cashless system — which involves the scanning of pupils’ fingerprints — in the face of widespread human rights concerns over similar technology which is in use in schools across Scotland.
Mr Nield said the Angus system was valuable as it prevented pupils in receipt of free schools meals from being identified and allowed parents to keep tabs on what kind of food their children had purchased.
Read more in The Courier.
The system, as described in the remainder of the story, seems to be an opt-out system. I’m not sure that a “no one’s complained” argument is a really powerful defense or that it indicates “unanimous support” for the system. People often fail to complain about intrusions of privacy until it’s too late, often because they naively trust school’s descriptions of systems and reassurances of no risk.
Thanks to the reader who sent in this link.