Nine schools in the UK are using facial recognition to verify payments for school meals. Although the schools in North Ayrshire, Scotland claim the technology is quicker and more efficient than using fingerprint scanners or cards to make payments, privacy advocates warn that this is normalizing biometric surveillance.
Facial Recognition allows pupils to select their meal, glance at the camera, and then go. This makes it faster, while also removing any contact at point of sale. The FAQ sheet explains that biometric data of children is encrypted and deleted after they leave the school. To allow children to use this technology, parents must opt in. Alternately, they can use PIN to verify payments.
To use the technology, parents must opt in
David Swanston, CRB Cunninghams' managing director, said that facial recognition reduced the average payment time for pupils to just five seconds. Swanston stated that pilots of the system were already in place and that 65 additional schools had signed up for the technology.
According to the FT, North Ayrshire Council claims that 97 per cent of parents and children consented for their children to be enrolled. Some parents claimed that their children did not understand what they signed up for and that they were being influenced by peer pressure.
All types of facial recognition systems are becoming more popular around the globe. These systems have been installed in schools across the United States for many years. They are usually used as security measures. Moscow implemented facial recognition payments last week in its metro system. Activists warned that this technology could be used for tracking and identifying protestors. Many states and cities across the US have banned facial identification, arguing that it is often biased across racial and gender lines. Politicians and advocacy groups in the European Union are also calling for the ban of facial recognition technology. They argue that it has too many negative effects.
Silkie Carlo, a member of UK campaign group Big Brother Watch, told the FT that the Ayrshire school system was unnecessary. It's normalizing biometric identity checks for something mundane, stated Carlo. Children don't need airport-style [technology] to get their lunch.
