Fingerprint recognition in schools

[Roland Perry]

In article <F8D90E6D-237C-42C1-8710-ACED25647D5A@batten.eu.org>, Ian
Batten <igb@batten.eu.org> writes
>There's no reason it  is related to the change from cards to prints,
>but parents whose  children are already in the school are heartily sick
>of the fact that  payment has to be made by cheque, and the new
>system's tie in to  online payment is incredibly attractive.

My kids secondary school it's cash or nothing. Well not quite "nothing"
as they have some sort of token system for free school meal recipients
that I'm not at all sure meets the criteria for recipients of free
school meals to be indistinguishable at the point of delivery.

>What's the thinking on (a) the slippery slope argument

I tend to agree, although in the USA they are happy to give up
fingerprints for driving Licences.

>and (b) the  problem of reconstruction of prints from hashes?

When I looked at this, my impression was that the system was pretty low
cost (and low resolution), and the hash was therefore inherently
irreversible to anything useful.

ps This story comes up like clockwork this time every year - for the
last five at least. Plenty of debate about it to be found online. Here's
one from last year:

<http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-486930/The-sinister-truth-
childrens-fingerprints.html>

The £20k mentioned in that article is about right; perhaps someone can
look up some specifications from whoever the vendor is.
-- 
Roland Perry