Kids Buy Lunches With Scans of Fingers

[The Straight Story]

Kids Buy Lunches With Scans of Fingers


ROME, Ga. (AP) -- The never-ending march of technology now means school children here can pay for their cafeteria sloppy joes with their fingers.

Rome City Schools is switching to a scanning system that lets students use their fingerprints to access their accounts. In the past, students had to punch in their pin numbers.

"The finger's better because all you've got to do is put your finger in, and you don't have to do the number and get mixed up," said Adrianna Harris, a second grader at Anna K. Davie Elementary School.

The new system speeds lunch lines, said city administrators. It's being phased in to Rome High School, Rome Middle School and all the city's elementary schools. The city hopes to have the system in use next month system-wide.


Some parents are uneasy with having their children's fingerprints scanned, and wonder about how well the information is secured.

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/F/FINGER_FOOD?SITE=FLTAM&SECTION=ENTERTAINMENT

[Fierce]

1. Is it an actual fingerprint scan?

Or just the "five points" scan?

[liberal N proud]

2. My daughter was doing that last year

The local school district implemented the system last year in the grade schools.
The middle and high schools only accept cash, but the younger kids use the scan and mom and dad pre-pay lunch programs

[hpot]

3. Part of the plan

Teach them at a young age to become docile and obedient.

Next step; chip implants.

[Arkansas Granny]

4. Yep. Get them acclimated to this and they are much more likely

to accept other "security" innovations that will gradually replace any privacy an individual can expect to have. A lot of people tell me I read too much science fiction, but this sounds like many of the stories I've run across.

[lonestarnot]

5. So stop having a lunch account. Bring your lunch, tastes better!

[Fierce]

6. Eh, it sounds useful to me.

nt

[Zomby Woof]

8. It is useful

A fingerprint is a person's built-in signature. This is the same as having a SSN, a bank account number, or a PIN number, except it doesn't require memorization and can't be lost or stolen. The paranoia about these things amazes me.

The best thing about this pay-by-touch, is that fraud would be virtually eliminated. Anyone can steal your PIN, forge your written signature, your driver's license, etc. But no one can forge your fingerprint.

I dismiss the protests of the paranoid myself. That's part of the currency of this forum though.

[hpot]

9. Trick Fingerprint Scanners with Gummi Bears

"But no one can forge your fingerprint."


Gummi Bears Can Also Fool Fingerprint Scanners
http://www.realtechnews.com/posts/3129

[rman]

10. I think it is exsessive to not be able to buy lunch

without personal ID.

[Gormy Cuss]

20. I agree, especially for elementary school kids. n/t

[The2ndWheel]

16. Seriously

The fraud going on in elementary school lunchrooms has got to stop!

I'm also quite sure that whoever wants to steal your identity/information will find a way to do it. Ever notice how the criminal is always one step ahead of the law?

But hey, why worry? Progress will cure all.

[SoCalDem]

22. Some kids will go to any extreme to get seconds of meatloaf

even stealing another kid's ID.. fingerprints will slow them down, until they can steal those fingers too :)

[rman]

23. Seems hardly the most serious security problem we're facing

I say, "overkill".
According to authoritarians such as the neocons, every little problem, every possible threat, is reason for rather draconian measures that have a negative effect on privacy and/or civil rights. This is just one more small step in a direction favorable to their way of governing - especially now that no-one is watching the watchers; now that the foxes are having a party inside the hen house.

[Blackthorn]

24. Hey, there's no more fraud.

Just a government (THIS government no less) that has fingerprints for the entire population. They can track where you are, what you buy, what you spend. I mean, you have no privacy in a virtual police state, but at least no one can steal your lunch.

This is the first step to complete and utter monitoring of the population. Just because you call us paranoid doesn't mean we're wrong.

[Fierce]

26. Exactly.

I'm not sure what would be done with a fingerprint that isn't already done with the other information -- except, as you pointed out, be used for fraud.

[NashVegas]

27. Sure It Is

Now, you'll never have to wonder if your kid is skipping lunch and using the money to buy a joint or cigarettes ever again.

But fraud? Sorry, ZW, if anyone can steal your PIN from a database, they can do the same with your print.

[deaniac21]

7. "scans of fingers".....doesn't sound very filling.

[KurtNYC]

11. I wanna know if the software automatically adjusts as their fingers

get fatter from eating "sloppy joes." They have the fingerprint and they know how many calories they are buying.

They should have spent the money on a nutritionist.

[MadHound]

12. Getting the next generation accustomed to having their fingerprint scanned

For every little thing. Want to get a meal, scan your print. Cash a check, scan your print. Buy groceries, scan your print. And on and on and on.

Oh, and this happy contrivance that is being put out there, ie that fingerprints mean better security, that's a line of horseshit. All somebody has to do is get a scan of your print, then impress it into latex or some other such substance and voila, instant fake fingerprint.

Oh, and this is getting the next generation accustomed to the cashless society, something else that the powers that be have wanted to implement for a long, long time. Trouble is, you make our economy cashless and you're going to wipe out the black market sector of our economy. That's an instant ten percent drop in our GNP and economy as a whole. Can you day depression?

[ComerPerro]

13. or they could cut off your finger

[MadHound]

14. They could

And I imagine that some of quick and dirty thieves will. But the smarter ones are right now accessing fingerprint databases, such as this one in Georgia and others at banks across the country, and copying the data. Then it is a simple matter to make a flesh colored latex mold that slips onto one's finger, and voila, you're somebody else:shrug: No fuss, no muss, and nobody knows any better until it is too late and your bank account has been drained.

[opti12206]

15. good

This is a good thing. They should start embedding microchips in kids when they are born.

[The2ndWheel]

18. Give it time

I'm sure DARPA will be right on that.

[newportdadde]

17. Not good I forsee one guy point a gun at someone or holding them down

while their pal chops off their freakin thumb with some loppers.. no thanks.

[Skidmore]

19. Another database for which files will be lost or stolen some day.

There really seems like there should be something illegal or unconstitutional about this.

[Taxloss]

21. Why not just barcode their wrists, or shoot microchips into them?

Has lunch-related identity theft become that big a problem?!

[aaronbees]

25. If they're having lunch line problems....

how about hiring a new lunch lady or two? Sheesh, is this really necessary at that age?