It was recently reported that facial recognition technology would be used in many UK schools so that children can pay for their meals.
Indeed, the North Ayrshire Council in Scotland will be implementing this technology in nine schools. It would mean setting up a processing meal payments for school lunches with facial scanning technology. By doing so, the authority is aiming to help reduce queues and the spread of COVID-19 as there would be fewer card payments and fingerprint scanners.
The company that developed the system stated that the cameras would check the child’s identity with encrypted faceprint templates that will be held on servers on-site at every school that has signed up. 97% of parents have agreed to the new system even though some consider that the children haven’t been given enough information to give their consent.
Privacy campaigners have shared their concerns over the fact that implementing facial recognition technology into schools for payment would be normalizing it. They stated that this sensitive and personal data should be protected and we should teach children that this is a breach of their privacy.
