Are parents happy that strangers can watch their children’s movements during school hours?

by Dave Hosford

Student Suspended for Refusing to Wear a School-Issued RFID Tracker | Threat Level | 
[Via Wired.com ]

A Texas high school student is being suspended for refusing to wear a student ID card implanted with a radio-frequency identification chip.

Northside Independent School District in San Antonio began issuing the RFID-chip-laden student-body cards when the semester began in the fall. The ID badge has a bar code associated with a student’s Social Security number, and the RFID chip monitors pupils’ movements on campus, from when they arrive until when they leave.

[More]

These RFID cards can be tracked by sensors throughout the school. So, the school is creating a large database on the exact daily movements of all the students. Say when they get to school or take a bathroom break or go to lunch or go to their locker.

It then becomes trivial to mine this database for information  that makes a predator’s life much easier.

Who has access to that database? What are the security procedures? How secure are the individual codes for each student? What other data are linked to the RFID – name, birthdate, address, etc.?

Sounds like a nice way for some wacko to focus on specific students and find out just what their daily schedules are – when they arrive, when they leave, where they will be at certain times, etc. 

As a parent, I would not be worried about the cost savings. I would be worrying about who has access to the data and why. 

I’d be worried about the strong attraction that access to this database would have to some of our worst criminals.