Want your children to have school dinners? Surrender their fingerprints

“We risk the next generation growing up with an acceptance of cradle-to-grave state snooping and control”
I thought that was rather the point of the exercise, no?
It ties in nicely with the government’s whole ID card ethos of targeting the young and old, and foreign, who are less likely to refuse, first, using ‘entitlement’ as an excuse.
I’m emigrating at the end of December, and every day spent in this country just provides more confirmation that I’ve made the right decision.

Sadly, this is an old issue. I corresponded with my school at length and received disingenuous and ignorant responses.

No, no, this is hysteria again.
Your student friend’s family member may or may not be right that someone could theoretically break in to the school’s computer systems, but what *exactly* do you propose that they would gain by so doing? Are you seriously proposing that someone will steal biometric data (and let’s not forget that the operator of the “hacking equipment” needs to be at least marginally competent) and use it to fake peoples’ fingerprints or irises? That’s the kind of thing that the intelligence agencies might get up to, but it’s a bit beyond your average criminal don’t you think?
Additionally, the biometric data may not be in a form that would be useful for that kind of thing anyway. It’s likely been condensed down into a set of feature points, and so it would only be useful in constructing a fake fingerprint that could fool the school library computer. Hardly a worthwhile criminal activity (unless, perhaps, you have books that are several hundred years overdue )
Furthermore, it’s mischievous of you to say that schools are accumulating this data. They aren’t. They’re enrolling students in a biometric authentication system; they probably don’t even know themselves how to get the biometric data back out of it, if indeed that’s even possible (I can certainly think of ways of preventing it *completely* – for instance by storing a one way hash of the set of identified feature points, rather than storing any actual biometric data).

It is sad that some people are naive and do not know how privacy or information can be and abused by some, including some in positions of power or influence, let alone some who are labelled criminal. Privacy, dignity, freedom of conscience and freedom of speech without payback (overt or otherwise) except in a few very rare circumstances are essential for society, including to protect and discourage crime. Traditional checks and balances are needed, but it is also unwise to give too much power to anyone or to expose people or give info unnecessarily. Most of us lock our doors and don’t walk around naked in public for good reasons.
This is not isolated. There is a scheme called zoom (bus pass) in Wales which I find disgusting and unwise. Apparently some in councils will know about kids’ mistakes or alleged mistakes (who didn’t make mistakes as a kid or adult) before the parents, minor alleged infractions will be noted and stored (and for how long), criminals could hack into the databases to find out kids’ schedules, and worst of all, undercover kids will snitch on others (and no doubt some kids will make mistakes in their snitching – wrong person, wrong offence, or exaggerated or understating offeces, some may make childish mistakes or malicious comments about others, and no doubt spying will become normalised as well as invasion of privacy). In addition, criminals or the nosey or those who cannot handle unnecessary knowledge will apparently have access to health details, which can be abused, and also lead to gossip. Apparently this is not a high-crime area, but even where there is high crime, some systems can be and do get abused. There will also be info which could be used to harm associates of the children. They too are put at risk by such naivety. Bullying and crime as well as childish mistakes or small indiscretions will not probably go down in the long-run. There will be some whose privacy is abused who will despair and some who become overly compliant or passive aggressive or other things. Traditional healthy forbearance, mercy and peacemaking – saying sorry, telling someone they hurt you, intermediaries and onlookers doing their part or not, respecting dignity etc are like muscles, if they are not used, the body of the community grows weak, and unhealthy systems harm not only directly but indirectly by reducing healthy community life. The Welsh have not always been treated well, will some of them in power now harm their own people, or will those that do (naively or otherwise) try to learn from when they were mistreated, bullied or when power was abused against them and treat those under their influence and control carefully, even when tempted by security or other problems? Having power or influence does not make someone better than others, there are glories and honour but also responsibility to those with less power, including children and adults under their authority. All people are valuable – we do not all have gifts which get us up the ladder, not everyone can be a leader, but all people – small or great in man’s eyes, have gifts and are worthy of respect. Gifts of kindness and work of all kinds, great or small, is to be valued. And those who are ill, young or small or less valuable or dispensable in the eyes
of some in power or influence should remember that opportunity, success and money are good things and to be encouraged but that they are also a responsibility (as well as sometimes a burden). Power, success and giftss are from God (and occasionally from the evil), and we will all give an account to God one day for how we used them. They do not make us better, though they may bless us, and hopefully others too.
Like gossip and slander, once info is out there, including misinfo and disinfo as well as accurate personal info, it can be abused and can take away from the dignity and reputation of the person about whom it is written. Shame on us all for allowing such systems! And I hope this scheme does not spread and the Zoom is adjusted and does not spread through Wales or the rest of Britain (there are also prizes for the stasi-style-snoops – bribery anyone?).

[ this is good]