Tracking devices used in school badges

[douglas9]

Two districts are first in the area to use ID tags that raise privacy, security concerns

Radio frequency identification — the same technology used to monitor cattle — is tracking students in the Spring and Santa Fe school districts.

Identification badges for some students in both school districts now include tracking devices that allow campus administrators to keep tabs on students' whereabouts on campus. School leaders say the devices improve security and increase attendance rates.

"It's a wonderful asset," said Veronica Vijil, principal of Bailey Middle School in Spring, one of the campuses that introduced the high-tech badges this fall.

But some parents and privacy advocates question whether the technology could have unintended consequences. The tags remind them of George Orwell's Big Brother, and they worry that hackers could figure a way to track students after they leave school.

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/metropolitan/7241100.html

[texastoast]

1. The tags remind them of George Orwell's Big Brother

Ya think?

[zipplewrath]

2. It's an RFID chip

All it does is "broadcast" a number when stimulated. Anyone that doesn't have the data base of numbers, doesn't know anything. It gets location information by knowing which receiving unit detected the device, and knowing where that receiving unit is. Anyone who doesn't know that information, can't make much use of it. Once you walk off campus, it is pointless. The only thing that needs protecting is the database, and that already exists, and needs to be protected.

[hobbit709]

3. And how secure is that database?

[Lance_Boyle]

4. How secure does it need to be? To whom would the information be useful

or even interesting if the system is compromised?

Knowledge of student X's particular physical location within the school building doesn't strike me as the kind of thing we need Blackwater mercenaries to protect. Unless it's John Connor. But in reality, there's just no use for much in the way of paranoia here. This is a potentially good use of the tech much more than a potentially bad or dangerous use. School officials can see whether Student X is in the classroom where he's supposed to be or in the janitor's closet sniffing glue. They can see a bunch of students congregated in a bathroom for longer than it takes to do the usual bathroom business and investigate. They can use it for attendance records. I have trouble coming up with even one potentially damaging use of RFID in this case.

[hobbit709]

5. You think that's all there would be?

I'd bet they just add the info to their existing database of student info instead of creating a new one just for tracking.

[Lance_Boyle]

8. And what additional nefarious plots does in-school location awareness facilitate?

RFID tracking of a student inside the school building just doesn't seem scary to me.

[hobbit709]

9. I cited the security or lack thereof of the database.

I made NO mention of plots, nefarious or otherwise.

[Lance_Boyle]

11. And I asked you the simple question - why does the RFID DB need to be secure?

In the absence of any nefarious plotting to misuse the data (not to mention the absence of any scenario - even hypotehtical - in which misuse of the data could be construed as harmful), there is no need to secure it. You're throwing out the database security argument as a scare tactic as if it is a forgone conclusion that the data in it is of interest or use to anyone outside its intended purpose. I posit that it is not. Therefore your "security of the database" point is... pointless.

[hobbit709]

13. Obviously you have a reading comprehension problem.

I asked what makes you think they would have a new separate database instead of just adding the tracking data into their existing database of student info.

[Lance_Boyle]

15. Not going to trade insults with you. My original question stands.

Of what potential (mis)use is the in-school RFID location data that it needs serious protection? It tells you where in the building badge X (hence student X) is located. What is the potential harm in the potential misuse of this data? Answer that in a non-ridiculous fashion and we can go on to talk about RFID tag database security. You have not yet established any NEED for security so questioning it is rather jumping the gun.

[Ohio Joe]

25. It is almost certainly it's own table

I would assume they use a relation DB system (god help them if they are using IMS) so it will be in it's own table. The bottom line though is that it will be no more or no less secure then the rest of their data. The use of this does nothing to change their security.

[david_vincent]

6. I don't.

Using a system like this may prevent students from doing things they shouldn't be doing, but only because they'll get caught if they do. Therefore, when away from the school and they know they're not being watched, they'll have the "cat's away" syndrome and use that to excuse any kind of behavior.
What this system will do is to give students a reason not to develop their own set of values concerning what is and isn't acceptable behavior. If you wanted to develop a generation devoid of a conscience, this would be one of the most effective means to that end.

[Lance_Boyle]

10. That's about the dumbest thing I've ever heard.

We shouldn't know where students are within the school because if we do they'll grow up wrong? Should we also blind teachers so they can't catch little Johnny making faces? After all, if he's caught he'll start making faces outside of school, and then THE WORLD AS WE KNOW IT WILL END!!!

[zipplewrath]

14. Bit of a stretch

Children already have a knowledge of when they are watched, and when they are not. This won't significantly change that awareness. And really, most schools will only tend to use it for the most superficial of applications. Attendance will be the largest, or just "finding" students when they need to will be the most dominant application. There MIGHT be some application towards security such as trying to detect students where they don't belong, but I suspect the "false positives" will be so frequent that most systems will not bother.

And constrast and compare that to situations such as fire alarms, lock downs, and "missing child" events and it's pretty hard to argue that there is much wrong with such a system.

[PeaceNikki]

21. lolz

[zipplewrath]

12. Depends

It's the database of their student body. It already exists and the RFID chips don't make it any more "insecure". I suspect it isn't all that secure. But the RFID doesn't have anything to do with that.

[Skink]

7. might as well imlant them

[HereSince1628]

16. Neither W or Cheney had these things. Look how they turned out!!!

I rest my case and my ass for student tracking. We gotta nip those neo-con toilet clusters in the butt, er, bud!!!!!!!

[immoderate]

17. Can't think of a downside -- many benefits, though.

My first instinct is civil libertarian, but then, these are students. The school is responsible for them during the day. If a parent shows up, the school certainly should be able to tell you where a child is supposed to be. Surely it is better to know where he/she actually is.

Anecdote: I once had a prospective contract to create a computerized report card system for a school. (This was before these were off the shelf systems.) I told the director I would need a list of the students and the classes they were in. She said it wasn't possible to supply that information. They didn't know where the students were going. I let it drop.

I think no one would fault a parent for tracking his or her kid. I don't see a downside to this.

--imm

[hayu_lol]

18. Wonder how long it will take a 'puter' literate student body ...

to game this system? They can congregate here and there and then dissolve into pairs and go to all the almost forbidden areas staying ahead of the charging janitors and hallway monitors. LOL.

This could backfire and turn into an enormous game on campus.

[Lance_Boyle]

19. Don't students already know where each other are during most of the school day?

If not by assigned schedules, then through their own tech they bring with them (sms)? I don't see how the location data provided by RFID in a student badge adds anything new of value to students interested in fucking off during school.

[immoderate]

20. Are you a screen writer? Send that to Disney.

They can and do those things now. It's fun, and then they get caught. And then it's suspensions and parents meetings, and much misery for most kids.

I was at a school where the kids hacked the computer. They didn't enjoy it so much when they were discovered.

--imm

[Tsiyu]

22. And if teachers get lazy, using a quick scan to take attendance

you can give your class-attending buddy your badge and play hookie for the day.

:evilgrin:

[X_Digger]

31. Doesn't even have to be computer literate..

.. aluminum foil inhibits the transmission of the signal enough to screw it up.

Shoplifters figured that one out a while back.

[Spike89]

23. harmless, passive, and not a threat

Some people have been reading way too much speculative fiction. A passive RFID system (the only kind even close to affordable enough for this use) can NOT track student movement, nor can it pinpoint a student's whereabouts. It is exactly the same technology used in many retail stores. The only thing a tag does is automate attendance and schools have been taking attendance forever.
Ironically, most high school kids already carry around a much more intrusive and potentially dangerous device--their cell phone. Even non-GPS models can be tracked when in use, many new ones even when in standby mode. Smart phones and those with true GPS can give you a ton more information about the holder/user, and based on kids habits with Facebook and other social media sites--big brother or identity thieves can pull a ton of info on anyone with such a device.
I use a cell phone, most people do. Is it a threat to privacy? Very much so. Are RFID tags in the same class? Not even close.

[texastoast]

24. We use RFID's in my industry

To find files. We always know where our paper files are located.

[Spike89]

26. Sure, paper doesn't often walk around

passive RFID tags do NOT tell anything about where they are, they only tell a receiver (usually limited to a few feet of range) that they are in range. So, within a school with a very advanced system with receivers on every door, you'd know if a student entered a classroom, but you'd have no idea where they were in the classroom, whether they were sitting, walking around, or hanging from the ceiling. In fact, the system would actually have to infer that the student entered, as they aren't directional, the student could have been leaving.

[Lance_Boyle]

27. But (barring a window escape) you'd know they were IN the classroom.

That's one giant leap for knowing-where-your-students-are-kind.

[Spike89]

28. So different from taking attendance the old way?

In my high school days (the 70s) each class took attendance and any absences were noted (on paper) and relayed to the admin offices. The teacher would put a slip of paper on a clip outside the classroom and one of the students working in the offices that period would gather them up and bring them to the office. This actually made it easier to skip the entire day than one class. The point being, they knew who was in class and who wasn't, well mostly.

It was easy enough to convince the student assigned to pick up slips to "lose" one (for some reason, they never filled out "all accounted for" slips, only when there was an absentee). The problem was figuring out who that student would be for any particular class period, oh and making sure there wasn't a real absentee in that class. Roughly, success at ditching class was about 50% without getting caught.

[Lance_Boyle]

33. Attendance was only taken during homeroom in my HS.

Other teachers might notice if you were out of their class, but "official" attendance was taken in homeroom, so if you showed up there you were present for the day.

So yeah, I still see this as an advance, even if ONLY for attendance-tracking purposes.

[Spike89]

29. Oh, BTW - you'd only know he/she entered

And even that would be the likely guess. Another student may have carried the tag in, the student may have left (perhaps just to visit the bathroom) and the tag is sitting on his/her desk.
ALL you really know is when the chip last passed a sensor.

[Lance_Boyle]

34. Agreed, but this is still better information than

"Student X is supposed to be in room 104 right now, but we have no idea if she's there or not."

I'd expect students to keep track of their own badges. Leave it somewhere for another student to pick up and it could end up under the door and in the teachers' lounge. ;-)

[aikoaiko]

30. First reaction: Sounds ok to me if they are only used on campus.

Its not an invasion of privacy as I see it.

[rainbow4321]

32. A school around here uses them

A Dallas area family talked to the news and said that their kid's school was using these.

Apparently, the teen left school and was down the street at the convenience store..the school sent their truency officers after him when his chip/badge helped tracked him.

The overall story was that the family and kid were not happy with the tracking system.

[Heywood J]

35. My concern here isn't the privacy issue.

Rather, how much money did this cost? Most schools seem to be so starved for cash, supplies, textbooks, etc. that they hold bake sales. How many textbooks could this have bought? How many hours of tutoring for kids could this have funded?