posted on Jul, 11 2013 @ 03:48 PM
Kids lose their school IDs but they don't often lose their eyeballs. That's one of the reasons why a growing number of schools are replacing
traditional identification cards with iris scanners. By the fall, several schools -- ranging from elementary schools to colleges -- will be rolling
out various iris scanning security methods.
money.cnn.com...
There was thread a about a month ago discussing the usage of retinal scans in Florida but this article differs as it seems to be that this is stating
that iris scans at schools are going to be infinitely more widespread than just a single state or school district starting this fall. I find this to
be a curious condition in which the way that the schools have been represented over the last several years is one of being woefully short of funds.
Additionally, universities and colleges have been increasingly hiking tuition so again, it's really curious to see something rather expensive being
implemented at such a level--especially on something that has very recently not been well received by parents. (The Florida pilot program was
suspended after a slew of complaints by parents just in the last month). One has to ask, why and how?
I'm a firm believer in following the money and yet, I cannot find a single thing on where the dollars being spent on any of this is actually
originating from. I did, however, isolate two very large companies as being those that are involved in putting biometrics into the schools--3M/Cogent
and Stanley Security Solutions (subsidiary of Stanley/Black & Decker). Out of the two, 3M/Cogent is the most notable as that is the entity contracted
by the Department of Education in the fingerprinting of educators nationwide.
Stanley Security Solutions also has a page where it states that it is "partnering" with educational facilities to basically assure student safety.
Whereas most of the examples on their "interactive solutions guide" are actually pretty great ideas, you'll find that retinal scanners/biometrics
are also in the proposed solutions as well as video cameras. I wonder if the latter means that parents can some day be treated to documented footage
of their child's dozing off during math.
www.stanleysecuritysolutions.com...
On this page, there is a section about funding these security solutions for k-12 and Stanley is offering assistance with grants and funding. Still
doesn't say who is offering up grants for this kind of tech but I can imagine a number of large companies and entities that would be interested in
introducing the public to the usage of biometrics on a daily basis...
www.stanleysecuritysolutions.com...
With the RFID chip, I recall them using children as well. The reason why the media uses children is because, well, we love our kids and want them to
be safe. However, RFID still fell pretty flat on its face so this time, it seems like they are just going to be putting the scanners in the schools.
Children are the least protected of citizens within this country and there are some very big companies, such as IBM, that have plans in the works for
a nation of shoppers that can be identified through biometrics. This is big money and so, the "glowing" CNN Money article doesn't surprise me.
It's probably just the beginning.