We’ve discussed in the past the use of biometric systems in UK schools, and how privacy advocates have expressed concern over the collection of the biometric data of students.
They feel that not only is it excessive, but there are also easier alternatives, which will in each case do the same job that using the biometric systems would.
Now, it’s becoming clear that the classroom of tomorrow could become a centre for excessive and intrusive data collection, above even that of Google itself.
An article by Pippa King for ‘The Post’ entitled ‘Why are British Schools spying on students’ highlights just how far schools are willing to implement technology to gather as much data as they can on students, and it’s pretty worrying. Pippa speaks about something called ‘mood indexing’, This is essentially where smart boards used in classrooms read the facial data of students to infer their mood using AI technology. A case study published by Intel entitled ‘Building a Smart Classroom with Interactive Displays and Digital Whiteboards’ detailed how ‘mood indexing’ would work, by providing the following information.
“A new variation on scammers trying to steal your money sees fraudulent emails being sent to victims that claim to be from HMRC. The email claims that the recipient is eligible for a tax refund as they have overpaid for their National Insurance. The fraudulent email then prompts the victim to click on a link to fill out a tax refund form, which takes them to a website which is designed by the scammers to take their personal details.”
“A new variation on scammers trying to steal your money sees fraudulent emails being sent to victims that claim to be from HMRC. The email claims that the recipient is eligible for a tax refund as they have overpaid for their National Insurance. The fraudulent email then prompts the victim to click on a link to fill out a tax refund form, which takes them to a website which is designed by the scammers to take their personal details.”
From collecting students’ fingerprints to pay for food, to scanning their facial data to tell the teacher the mood of the classroom, it is all too much. Turning the classroom into a surveillance room when children are supposed to be in a normal learning environment, King says, desensitises children to biometric data collection, and makes them think that it isn’t harmful or excessive. The classroom isn’t purely for feeding information to children on the subject at hand that day, it’s also for teaching them about society, learning social behaviour and nurturing confidence, all in a safe environment, Implementing intrusive technology that gathers any and every type of information possible worsens that environment, and rids children of the feeling that their ‘data’ (in this case the way they feel about the lesson they’re currently attending) belongs to them. How can students trust their school to have their best interests at heart when the school doesn’t even trust them to have their own emotions without them being harvested as data points to tell a teacher how to teach? As King points out in her article, the only other country to use this type of monitoring is China.
King goes on to say how the Edtech community “boasts that their ability to data scrape from students in education exceeds that of Google”. Whilst the UK markets ourselves as world leaders in data protection and ensuring data subjects have control over their data, in reality the levels of data we collect on students goes way over and above what countries like the US do. Whilst Sweden, France, Bulgaria and Poland are fining and banning schools for using fingerprint and facial recognition technology, the UK can’t seem to get enough of these systems.
The lack of restrictive frameworks on the use of biometrics in schools by the ICO has meant that the Department of Education has outlined what is acceptable, despite the fact that GDPR states that biometric technology should never be used if there is a less intrusive alternative, which there will be in the case of schools. Whilst the use of biometric systems on schools is currently confined to the canteen and libraries, if the ICO fails to comment and outline exactly where the line is, this will move into the classrooms with technology like Intel’s smartboard and their ‘mood indexing’.
The ICO is supposedly publishing their response to North Ayrshire Council on their banning of facial recognition in their schools. This will hopefully give us some answers as to where things are likely heading when it comes to the use of biometric technology in our schools.