Warning over school smartcard
UK: Balancing crime and freedoms
The vice-chairperson of a UK children’s rights group has warned
parents of the potential implications of the city council’s “smartcard”
initiative for pupils at Dundee’s secondary schools.
Alison Preuss of ARCH (Action on Rights for Children), who lives in
Dundee, expressed concern at the “creeping surveillance agenda”
stripping away at the civil liberties of youngsters in Scotland. Ms Preuss, who is also a spokeswoman of the Dundee-based charity,
Schoolhouse Home Education Association, said many parents are unaware of
the potential implications of such ID cards.
The cards will have a photograph and machine readable strip
containing information on the pupil which she said “lends itself to
subjective opinions being put on people’s records that often they have
no idea exist”. She claimed that thousands of school children in the UK were signing
up to such initiatives, often without the knowledge or consent of their
parents.
“It’s really been introduced covertly, it’s the first step on the
road down to softening people up to ID cards, which we would be
vehemently opposed to, because, nobody is quite sure who can access the
information and how it’s going to be shared.
“Very often parents aren’t actually aware their children are
consenting to a photograph being taken. I think if there is proper
consultation with parents and they agree to it, that’s different, but
very often they only get one side of the story and are not told there
could be problems, which we have found that there very much could be,
with stealing of information, or sharing it beyond data protection
principals.
“Parents should become more informed about the implications, and not
just believe everything they are told by the authorities who tend to
just want to make things easy for them, but to find out about the
storage of data and inform others about it as well, so that they can
make their own judgement about what is right for their children.”
The city council said there was “absolutely no compulsion” for any
pupil to join the scheme, which, a spokesman said, was “fully compliant”
with data protection legislation.
“Any pupil who does not opt into the scheme would still be able to
use facilities,” he said.
“There was thorough consultation about the scheme before it was
launched and the city council carried out rigorous research into the
legal implications.
“The card has been introduced as part of the modernisation of public
services in Dundee and has been designed to incorporate other features
for the pupils such as the Young Scot card.”
Ms Preuss said that although school ID cards were not compulsory,
pupils were often given incentives to sign-up and those who who don’t
agree were often made to feel “left out” or “different”.
“The Connexions service in England is actually offering insurance to
half these cards — if you use your card so many times, they will give
you vouchers to X, Y and Z,” she said.
The Connexions service is a government initiative which has the
stated aim of easing the “transition” of young people aged 13-19 between
full-time education and post-16 choices in training, education or
employment.
Connexions is intended to provide a careers, education, health and
welfare service to teenagers in a “one-stop shop” where each young
person is allocated a Personal Advisor (PA).
Connexions depends on the sharing of information about a young person
between agencies with which they have come into contact such as social
services, youth offending teams, schools, LEA’s, health authorities,
local authorities, the police and probation officers.
The power for them to share confidential information was granted by
the Learning & Skills Act 2000.
The much-vaunted but equally controversial Thumbprint Signature
Programme, whereby customers at several stores in Dundee were asked to
provide a thumbprint when buying goods with credit or debit cards, “died
a death” according to leading retailers involved in the scheme, with
objectors claiming it infringed civil liberties.
Ms Preuss warned that tens of thousands of UK school children are
being finger printed by schools, often without the knowledge or consent
of their parents, as part of a cost cutting “automation” of school
libraries.
Privacy International has condemned the procedure, branding it
“dangerous, illegal and unnecessary”, and has called for a prohibition
of the technology in schools.
By Graeme Strachan
18 September 2003
http://www.eveningtelegraph.co.uk/output/2003/09/16/story5159287t0.shtm
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