Tracking students with RFID tags

[pendell]

I want to know what part of your privacy this tracker card violates.

You didn't ask me, Traab, but I will answer.

My objection is that it tracks me by my social security number. The school system has no need to know that. let them implement their own unique student ID system.

Or I would if I went to that school. :)


Respectfully,

Brian P.

[warty goblin]

You didn't ask me, Traab, but I will answer.

My objection is that it tracks me by my social security number. The school system has no need to know that. let them implement their own unique student ID system.

Or I would if I went to that school. :)


Respectfully,

Brian P.

The school system in some component part almost certainly has a need to know it. They don't need to track by it though, and there's legitimate reasons to not want your SSN accessible like that. It's probably not a deal when there's only a couple schools doing it, but I'd think if it takes off, this sort of thing would be a golden opportunity for identity thieves.

[Anarion]

A general point. Almost all the arguments in favor of this system are of the form "your privacy is already being violated all the time anyway, so this doesn't matter and if you're upset about it, you're being hypocritical."

I want to reject that line of thought. I am upset that my privacy is being violated in other ways, but many of them are established and difficult to fight. All of us have limited energy and time. This is a new system and someone is fighting it right now rather than let it be put in place. I think this system violates privacy by tracking students by Social Security number and arguably desensitizes them to the idea of a remote system that knows where you are at all times (regardless of the details of its effectiveness). So, I hope that it succeeds in getting defeated, even though I'm unwilling to put in the time and effort to deal with much of the other tracking going on right now.

[Traab]

You didn't ask me, Traab, but I will answer.

My objection is that it tracks me by my social security number. The school system has no need to know that. let them implement their own unique student ID system.

Or I would if I went to that school. :)


Respectfully,

Brian P.

And THAT I can easily accept. You are right. They have no need to use our ssn to track students. I honestly see no purpose in needing THAT number specifically.

[warty goblin]

And THAT I can easily accept. You are right. They have no need to use our ssn to track students. I honestly see no purpose in needing THAT number specifically.

I mean surely they already assign unique student ID numbers, right?

[Traab]

I mean surely they already assign unique student ID numbers, right?

Even if they didnt they easily could. A nice useless number, only good for record keeping to identify students.

[warty goblin]

Even if they didnt they easily could. A nice useless number, only good for record keeping to identify students.

Given how many students are in that district, I'd think they'd have to have IDs. At that scale names aren't unique anymore, and if they don't have some form of unique per-student identifier, it's a wonder their database people flipped the hell out yet.

[Anarion]

Given how many students are in that district, I'd think they'd have to have IDs. At that scale names aren't unique anymore, and if they don't have some form of unique per-student identifier, it's a wonder their database people flipped the hell out yet.

They almost surely have ID numbers. Though ironically, releasing that number might be seen as a problem from their end, since it could allow students who knew it to try and access their information in school computer systems.

Or it could be no problem at all and the district wouldn't care and was just lazy in using SSN. Either one.

[Roland St. Jude]

Sheriff: This topic was borderline to begin with but it's now clearly crossed over into political and even religious issues. Thread locked.