UK FINGERPRINGTING OF STUDENTS LEADS TO ANGER OVER POSSIBLE IDENTITY THEFT ISSUE AS A RESULT OF THEFT OF COMPUTERS Fury At School Fingerprinting (from Bucks Free Press)

Fury at school fingerprinting
By Sitala Peek
A PARENT says he will battle his son's school through the courts over plans to take pupils' fingerprints.
Children at Princes Risborough Primary School are required to have their fingerprints scanned in order to borrow books from the library.

The biometric data system has been in place for several years, but Neil Mitchell says it is an infringement of his son's privacy rights.

Mr Mitchell, 33, of Hunt Road, High Wycombe, said: "My personal permission was not sought.
"The first I knew about this was when Ioannis came home from school one day and said he had to give his fingerprint for the library system."

Softlink Europe, which installed the system at the school, said fingerprinting eliminated the need for a library card, which could be lost, stolen, or borrowed and made it faster and easier for pupils to borrow and return their books.

The company stressed that fingerprints were not stored on the computer system and guaranteed the procedure did not contravene the Data Protection Act.
But Mr Mitchell said the measures were "disproportionate to the need".

He has since removed his six-year-old son, pictured right with mum Mook, from the school.

Mr Mitchell said: "I will fight this even if it means going to a solicitor or going to the High Court."

Mr Mitchell, who was a victim of identity fraud in the past, said he was merely standing up for children's rights.

He added: "Children don't have a voice. They don't know what they are doing and most of them think it's a lot of fun. But it's actually quite serious. We could have a whole population of adults whose biometric information is stored on insecure systems. Schools are not the safest places in terms of security they are always being broken into.

"What if the school's computer equipment is stolen, or they give away their computers when they upgrade?

"You can delete the information but it will still be stored in the hard drive accessible to people with the right knowledge and skills.

"I would like the computerised part of the library system to be shut down and for them to think of a different way of organising library issuing."

Sheila MacDonald, speaking on behalf of the Local Education Authority, said: "It is quite common. Most libraries have electronic systems and more and more are using a fingerprinting system."

Mr Mitchell is setting up a protest group to fight fingerprinting in schools.

For more information on the protest group contact mitchell. neil@virgin.net
1:26pm today