Friday, February 18, 2011

Gov does Impact Assessment on parental consent for processing childrens biometrics

Over on the Home Office's website is an Impact Assessment entitled:
"Requirement for schools to seek written parental consent before processing children's biometric data". 

It is good to see a document coming from government raising concerns and offering solutions to the controversial subject of processing children's biometrics without parents consent.

It is, in fact, it is the only document that has ever been issued by our government concerning biometrics in schools, in the 10 years the technology has been in used by children.

The previous 'advice' issued by the now defunct quango Becta was issued without any consultancy, knowledge or research into the subject of biometrics whatsoever, legal, academic or otherwise, etc.  This fact came to light in a Freedom of Information request.  

In contrast the above Home Office document outlines many aspects to be considered when using childrens biometrics without their parents consent.

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