Saturday, December 12, 2009

Hewett Fingerprint Scheme Is Good For Security

The decision by the Hewett Nursery to install fingerprint technology to aid security is very welcome indeed, and parents have backed the move in this story in the EEN. As one of my kids attends the nursery I knew about this a while ago and think it to be a thoroughly good thing.

One person did comment to me that the best security is human-to-human contact; a key worker who knows the child and their carers and uses their professional sense. I wouldn't disagree but this technology just adds that extra bit of security and should be seen as a complement to security arragements rather than replacing the old ones.

I was also told that these ideas "de-humanise" schools and turnback the open culture of schools and nurseries. I can see the arguement there, but if you are a regular at the school then they will hold your fingerprint and you are only one click away.

Either way I think this is the way that schools and nurseries will go; for the security of my daughter I think its a good thing but I don't know how far security will have to go in the future.

1 comment:

Paul said...

One of the prinicaple problems with this issue is a confusion over the technolgy used. The systems used tend to measure the gap between the lines rather than take a finger print. these gaps then form a unquie number under which the computer stores information. It tends to be an effective system and does not reflect an intrusion into privacy at all.

It was introduced into most Schools in essex about 5 years ago and works fine.