'Tell parents' about pupil fingerprinting

Schools should inform parents before collecting children’s fingerprints under proposed best practice guidelines, according to an independent authority.

The guidelines will be created by the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) and will urge schools to seek parental permission before recording children’s fingerprints.

Although neither the ICO nor the Department for Education and Skills (DfES) were able to give figures to show how many schools had fingerprint technology in place, according to Liberal Democrat MP Greg Mullholland the scheme is “used by up to 3,500 schools”. He said this “totals to three quarters of a million children".

The guidelines have been drawn up following a number of concerns from parents that their children’s biometric information was being collected without their knowledge and consent. Typically this information is used for electronic registrations, library access and as a substitute for money in the lunch queue.

Parents have not been informed in the past because the Data Protection Act states schools do not need to have their consent in order to gather this data.

Now the ICO wants to encourage schools to inform parents and ensure the informaation is used within data protection guidelines.

“Although they are not legally bound we will still endeavour to encourage schools to adopt best practices when it comes to storing children’s data," said an ICO spokeswoman.

“Under our new guidelines schools using children’s biometric data will be urged to seek consent of parents.

“We will also seek to ensure that schools are made fully aware of the Data Protection Act and the rules and regulations surrounding such sensitive data."

The move has the backing of the DfES, which said: "Parents should be engaged in all aspects of school life and it is common sense for schools to talk to them about this and all issues relating to their children.”

However, according to children's rights organisation, The Action on Rights for Children (ARCH), gathering children's biometric data may “cause [the children] a huge problem with security and data in years to come”.

"A huge amount of children are being taught to give out their biometric information without even a second thought and this could lead to them being very careless with their biometrics," said Terri Dowty, director at ARCH.

“Fingerprints are not like passwords that can be changed, they are biometric and with them for life, it only takes one leak of information and that child’s identity can be lost or stolen,” she said.

But the DfES disagreed. It said: “It is important to remember that schools have always collected personal information, such as registers and home addresses, on pupils for their own smooth running.

“They are well used to handling all kinds of sensitive information to comply with data protection and confidentiality laws.”

A spokeswoman for the ICO also backed this up and said. “Access to such sensitive data can only be accessed by a data protector and possibly a few teachers, under the data protection act schools must also dispose of the data using professional data cleansing companies once the child has left or if it no longer of use,” she added.

The new guidelines for schools will be available from the end of March 2007.