TRI In The News
Pressure from Parents Lead Maryland School to Cancel Controversial Palm Scanners
From Examiner
Original article available here
The Rutherford Institute just released an announcement that the Carroll County school district in Maryland is canceling further "installation of biometric palm readers in county schools". Biometric palm scanners use near-infrared light to record a vein pattern that is as unique as a fingertip pattern and can be matched instantly to a record of your palm stored in a central computer. Privacy experts equate the technology to having your child fingerprinted without the mess of ink. Unlike fingerprints, though, once a person's palm is scanned, the data from the scanner is matched to their identity, forever.
The goal of the scanners' use in Carroll County was simple: shorter lunch lines in the cafeteria.
However, Carroll County elementary students in a pilot program were scanned before the school notified the parents they could opt-out. Parents protested and, according to an article in The Baltimore Sun, 20 percent of the parents opted-out. Mike Webb, father of an elementary school student in the district, hired constitutional rights attorney John Whitehead, founder of the Rutherford Institute who has been "vocal in warning school officials and communities against prioritizing the interests of governments and corporations over the privacy rights of students and families," according to their press release.
The Carroll County Superintendent of Schools Steve Guthrie announced yesterday they are not pulling the existing pilot program out of the 10 schools that currently have biometric palm readers installed and won't install the rest of the equipment without "further notice", according to the Carroll County Times. The article states that Guthrie did so at the behest of Commissioner Doug Howard, R-District 5, to review changing the current opt-out to an opt-in system. That way parents who have no objection to having their child's palm scanned and data stored can choose to use the palm-scanning system.
In the meantime, Carroll County will seek alternative ways to "meet the District’s efficiency goals." They are cancelling the installation of the equipment in the rest of the 43 schools in their district. Total cost for software and hardware to the district would have been $300 thousand plus maintenance contracts with PalmSecure, a product of the only company to manufacture the scanners to date, Fujitsu.
According to the Rutherford Institute, "palm scanning identification devices are becoming increasingly common throughout the country, and can be found in over 50 school systems and 160 hospital systems, spanning 15 states and Washington, DC." This reporter has found examples of school districts using the palm readers in Louisiana, Mississippi and Florida.
The Rutherford Institute has made an opt-out letter available to parents concerned about the use of biometric devices in other school districts.
For more information about the types of invasive technology being used by school districts across the country, read an article dated November 29, 2012, "Are your child's civil rights being bashed because your school needs more cash?"
