A few days ago, we posted a story on PogoWasRight.org about the use of biometrics in school settings. The author of the piece was Mitch Johns, President and Founder of Food Service Solutions. The article stated, in part:

How do school lunch biometric systems work and do they protect privacy?

In most school lunch biometric systems, students place a forefinger on a small fingerprint reader by the register. In seconds, the system translates the electronic print into a mathematical pattern, discards the fingerprint image, and matches the pattern to the student’s meal account information. Food Service Solutions (FSS) biometric software, for example, plots 27 points on a grid that correspond with the fingerprint’s ridges to achieve positive identification, but saves no actual fingerprint image.

When school lunch biometric systems like FSS’s are numerically-based and discard the actual fingerprint image, they cannot be used for any purpose other than recognizing a student within a registered group of students. Since there’s no stored fingerprint image, the data is useless to law enforcement, which requires actual fingerprint images. As there’s no way for any fingerprint or computer expert to extract a record and reconstruct a person’s fingerprint image from purely numerical data, privacy is protected.

I found the statements to be somewhat surprising and because it made some technical assertions about the system that would relate to privacy, I posted the story.

I subsequently received email from someone who was concerned that we had posted what he considered a one-sided piece from someone who had, perhaps, a vested interest in minimizing the privacy issues.

Although I can certainly appreciate his concern, the reality for me as owner/editor-in-chief of PogoWasRight.org is that I cannot simply ignore stories or items just because the author’s opinion or conclusions differ from my own. What I can do here, however, is pass along the links the correspondent sent me so that those who would like to read a different perspective on the issue can do so:

Kim Cameron:
http://www.identityblog.com/?p=733

Is a fingerprint image stored:
http://www.LeaveThemKidsAlone.com/facts.htm

Bruce Schneier:
http://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2005/01/fingerprinting_1.html

Andrew Clymer:
http://www.LeaveThemKidsAlone.com/insecure.htm

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