Biometrics for school lunches

[insideoutsider]

We received a letter last week from my DC's primary school saying the children will have to have their fingerprints / biometrics recorded as part of the school payments process. They already have a payment app where we make payments such as school lunches, music lessons, trips etc

I thought - I would not be consenting for my children's biometrics to be collected. Today, I rang the school for clarification and they said they will not be able to buy ANY school lunches or any trips without biometrics. Sounds like something from a dystopian fiction.

Am I being unreasonable to think this is a little OTT? Fingerprints are such a powerful means of identification that really shouldn't be in the hands of just anyone. I'm happy for biometrics to be scanned at airports and security agencies or to keep people safe. This, however, is some random company, collecting and storing their fingerprints.

It's not space camp; it's school lunches!

AIBU? Please share your thoughts and the consequences if you declined to give consent.

It makes far more sense for my kids to pay this way than with money, cards or codes. All of the others can be stolen but no one can steal his fingers.
Why are you ok with them knowing their medical history, name, address, dob etc but not a tiny fingerprint - which they don't do anything with other than use for payments.

No wonder people leave school without a sense of self responsibility, children at secondary school are 11+ and can't be trusted not to lose money? Cripes! I bet the school moans about having no money as well, but will happily pay for what is to be honest pointless tech. Anyway, if you are uncomfortable then they should provide an alternative.

@Sandybval
No wonder people leave school without a sense of self responsibility, children at secondary school are 11+ and can't be trusted not to lose money?

I thought this as well!
People are sending kids to school across town but cannot trust them not to lose their money or cards or remember pin codes. Majority of those giving a thumbs up to the fingerprint payment have given this as their reasons.

I think we should be giving our kids more responsibility for their lunch monies. Wouldn't that help to build personal responsibility?

It's not just about losing things.
It's about thing being stolen.
It is also about speed of queues in the canteen.

Think about it at the supermarket:
The slowest method of payment is cash.
Then comes a credit card with a pin number
Fastest is a contactless card.
Even faster would be a finger as it is there to hand.

In a secondary school speed of processing really matters.

The supermarket don’t want my finger for payment though - speed of processing isn’t good enough for me to merit holding my child’s data in this way.

@TeenTimesTwo In a secondary school speed of processing really matters

How have they coped so far though? In our schools, they've had lunch with the payment app and with a few kids using cash with no issues. The slowness usually comes from kids trying to decide what food to have.

I just think using fingerprints is unnecessary for that particular task.

DS has this system at his school and I dont have a problem with it.

Disney were collecting fingerprints when I was there 17 od years ago

I just shake my phone At tills to pay. I have an Alexa. My house runs on Hive. My phone uses my finger print. My dna and prints and already stored in the system as well as all my measurements. My house is covered in cctv.

I’m married to an IT nerd who works in IT who has no concerns. Hell even fitbits and helped solve murder cases.

Unless you live off grid you could be being monitored. Smart meters know when you are home.

There isn't a tin foil hat big enough for this thread.

Op, I think you are being ridiculous imo, but at least it looks as if you're not alone..

Our school looked at doing that but in the end decided against it. Something to do with young children's fingerprints still changing as they grow meaning it wouldn't be reliable.

I might be paranoid but paranoia has kept my family alive

I was referring to my family being told that everything was fine, business as usual when tanks rolled into the town square.

OrganisedKitchenDraws when a school goes directly against a written instruction then I believe they can’t be trusted with what they say in regards to how safe and secure there system is.

I don’t believe for one moment that there is any form of choice in this matter.

They want your child’s fingerprints and they will get them regardless

It's a non-issue as far as I am concerned. If I am going to be worried about security and privacy then it will be with all the CCTV around as we are one of the most watched nations there is.

For all those claiming that fingerprint templates can't be reversed, I'd like to refer you to a 2019 paper by Professor Marta Gomze-Barrero and Javier Galbally titled 'Reversing the irreversible: A survey on inverse biometrics' where (summarizing a meaningful body of research) they state “It is now an accepted fact that it is possible to reconstruct from an unprotected template a synthetic sample that matches the bona fide one”.

As someone with multiple decades of involvement in security, I won't be giving my consent to use biometrics for anything much other than travel.