Loss of Privacy

From msnbc news:

In a bid to set parents’ nerves at ease, a southwest suburban school district has become one of the first in the state to begin tracking students riding buses to and from school each day with Global Positioning System and Radio Frequenty Identification technology.

Palos Heights School District 128 had previously been using ZPass, a GPS technology provided by Seattle-based Zonar Systems, to track the buses.  But now the district is outfitting students’ backpacks with a luggage tag-sized unit that logs when the student steps on and off the bus.

And this will surely work because kids never forget their backpacks and always take them home from school. Children will just get a friend to hold their bags, thus circumventing the system. Once the kid gets off the bus, they aren’t tracked anymore. Good luck finding your child then.

For all you parents that worry far too much, stop worrying. Your kids aren’t in any more danger now than they were 40 years ago. Allowing this intrusive crap into your lives only coddles your children into accepting being tracked as normal for the rest of their lives. You’re not helping.

The New Canaan school district in Connecticut is toying with the idea of electronically tracking their students.

New Canaan already has GPS and video cameras on all their buses, but is only exploring being part of an experiment testing such tracking. Under the program, students would be carrying an ID card with radio frequency strips. It pinpoints a student’s location, be it in the classroom or off grounds in nearby downtown.

As usual, the company that would provide the tags has brought out the old standby that they would be useful in an emergency.

“In an emergency they would be able to take attendance and know which students were where in a matter of seconds,” he explained.

As has been pointed out numerous times before, these devices are easily defeated. This idea isn’t new and it will fail.

The first dual biometric reader is now available from ZKSoftware. The iFace 302 is a face and fingerprint reader.

iFace multi-biometric reader is based on ZKSoftware’s latest ZEM600 platform with ZK Face 5.0 algorithm. ZK Multi-Bio processor operating at 630MHz and high definition camera with infra red light source enables user identification even in dimly lit environment. The iFace series or readers are designed by a professional German design company and has ergonomic design. All operations of iFace devices are can be accessed from the menu on the 4.3 inches TFT touch screen. iFace has RS232/485, TCP/IP, ports for communication and also has optional WiFi or GPRS capabilities. Optional built-in 2000 mAh battery keeps the reader functioning in the absence of power failure.

Features included:

Identification methods include Face, Fingerprint/RFID and/or Password
Elegant ergonomic design
4.3’’ TFT touch screen offers friendly and intutive user experience
6 user-defined function keys
Contact relays for access control (wires to door strike or 3rd party panel)
Optional Web server management software via IE browser
Scheduled bell ringing function which can trigger an external bell
Infra-red light source enables user-identification in poorly lit environments
Optional built-in battery backup provides approx 4 hours continuous operation.
Optional built-in wireless Wi-Fi or GPRS for wireless communication.
Built-in contacts for 3rd party electric lock, door sensor, alarm, exit button, or bell.
Wiegand Output for connections to 3rd party access control panels

*Disclaimer: Features and technical specifications are subject to change without notice.

I wonder if the RFID chip from the ID card interfere with the Oyster card?

Speaking a CeBIT, Professor August Wilhelm Scheer made the astonishing claim that one in four Germans would be happy to have an implanted RFID chip in their skin if it meant more convenience for them, particularly waiting times at the grocery store.

As well as foretelling the imminent demise of the CD and DVD, Professor Scheer said that implanting chips into humans was going to become commonplace. “The speed of the development is not going to be reduced this decade,” he told an audience of tech execs and politicians including German Chancellor Angela Merkel. “Some developments can already be seen. CDs and DVDs are going to disappear as material sources of information. Wallpaper will be replaced by flat screens and many of us will have chips implanted beneath our skin by the end of next decade.

Rather than being based on pure speculation, Scheer said that his organistion BITKOM had actually conducted research which had shown that a quarter of Germans would be happy to have a chip implanted if it meant they could access services more easily.

“We just carried out a survey and one out of four people are happy to have a chip planted under their skin for very trivial uses for example to pass gates more quickly at a discotheque for example and to be able to pay for things more quickly in the supermarket,” said Scheer. “The wilingness of the population to accept our technology is certainly given.”

The results of that survey are on their website [pdf] . If you look closer at Mr. Scheer’s statistics, 72% do not want an RFID implant.

Stats are hard to figure out, especially when it’s been reported that 1 in 7 Germans want the Berlin Wall back because the country was better off when it was split.