Reading, Writing, RFID

supabeast! writes "Wired has a story about a public charter school in Buffalo that now tracks student attendence with mandatory RFID tags. The school's director said 'All this relates to safety and keeping track of kids...Eventually it will become a monitoring tool for us..' In the future the system will expand to '...track library loans, disciplinary records, cafeteria purchases and visits to the nurse's office...punctuality...and to verify the time [students] get on and off school buses.' I think that we can all stop calling the privacy advocates paranoid now."

full story

[Anonymous Coward]

Story location: http://www.wired.com/news/technology/0,1282,60898, 00.html 02:00 AM Oct. 24, 2003 PT Gary Stillman, the director of a small K-8 charter school in Buffalo, New York, is an RFID believer. While privacy advocates fret that the embedded microchips will be used to track people surreptitiously, Stillman said he believes that RFID tags will make his inner city school safer and more efficient. Stillman has gone whole-hog for radio-frequency technology, which his year-old Enterprise Charter School started using last month to record the time of day students arrive in the morning. In the next months, he plans to use RFID to track library loans, disciplinary records, cafeteria purchases and visits to the nurse's office. Eventually he'd like to expand the system to track students' punctuality (or lack thereof) for every class and to verify the time they get on and off school buses. "That way, we could confirm that Johnny Jones got off at Oak and Hurtle at 3:22," Stillman said. "All this relates to safety and keeping track of kids.... Eventually it will become a monitoring tool for us." Radio-frequency identification tags -- which have been hailed as the next-generation bar code -- consist of a microchip outfitted with a tiny antenna that broadcasts an ID number to a reader unit. The reader searches a database for the number and finds the related file, which contains the tagged item's description, or in the case of Enterprise Charter, the student's information. Unlike bar codes, which must be manually scanned, RFID-tagged items can be read when they are in proximity to a reader unit, essentially scanning themselves. The school uses passive RFID tags that are activated when radio waves from the reader reach the chip's antenna. (Active RFID tags incorporate a battery that constantly broadcasts the chip's ID number and are much more expensive.) The technology has raised a ruckus in recent months, as companies such as Wal-Mart move from bar codes to RFID to track merchandise and libraries place the chips in books to streamline loans. Privacy advocates worry that the technology will be used to track people without their knowledge. But for Stillman, whose public school is located in a gritty Buffalo neighborhood, RFID is about accounting for the whereabouts of his charges and streamlining functions. "Before, everything was done manually -- each teacher would take attendance and send it down to the office," he said. "Now it's automatic, and it saves us a lot of time." The charter school's 422 students wear small plastic cards around their necks that have their photograph, name and grade printed on them, and include an embedded RFID chip. As the children enter the school, they approach a kiosk where a reader activates the chip's signal and displays their photograph. The students touch their picture, and the time of their entry into the building is recorded in a database. A school staffer oversees the check-in process. The school spent $25,000 on the ID system. The $3 ID tags students wear around their necks at all times incorporate the same Texas Instruments smart labels used in the wristbands worn by inmates at the Pima County jail in Texas. Similar wristbands are used to track wounded U.S. soldiers and POWs in Iraq and by the Magic Waters theme park in Illinois for cashless purchases. But the Buffalo school is believed to be the first facility to use the technology to identify and track children. Stillman was tipped off to RFID by the vice principal's husband, who works at a Buffalo Web design studio that is partnered with Intuitek, the company that designed the school's system. Stillman originally wanted the RFID tags sewn directly into the students' uniforms, but teachers feared that the kids might simply swap uniforms to dupe the system, so he decided to have students wear the picture tags around their necks instead. Privacy experts expressed dismay at the idea of using RFID tags on children. "I think the Buffalo experiment is getting children ready for the brave new world, where people

Re:Misleading story (both wired and slashdot)

[helix400]

Deep down near the end of the article, you see this:

"Intuitek President David M. Straitiff said his company built privacy protections into the school's RFID system, including limiting the reading range of the kiosks to less than 20 inches and making students touch the kiosk screen instead of passively being scanned by it. He pooh-poohed the notion that the system would be abused.

(It's) the same as swiping a mag-strip card for access control, or presenting a photo ID badge to a security guard, both of which are commonplace occurrences," Straitiff said."

Kinda takes the steam out of the story. Since whoever wrote this story left out or hid gigantic facts, I'm going to continue to call many privacy activists paranoid.

Re:How does this violate a right?

[Anonymous Coward]

It really depends on wether you believe that a 'Right to Privacy' stands on it's own as an important civil right. Many people do, and recording individual student movements throughout the day would seem to fly in the face of that. It isn't the principal's business if I meet with the guidance counselor privately, for example. Or if I visit the Gay and Lesbian students club meeting before leaving the building...

Easy to tell

[siskbc]

Workaround: "Hey Sandy, if you carry my tag to English today, I'll carry yours on Thursday."

Presumably if they're going to the trouble of determining all those other parameters, they'll also determine if the average distance between any two tags remains two low (ie, within two inches of each other because they're both around the same student's neck) or if the correlation between the positions of any two tags is too high (ie, because one's around a student's neck and the other is in his pocket for two straight hours).

Maybe the school is too obtuse, but if I were the principal and I was an RFID-phile, that's what I'd do.

Re:How does this violate a right?

[smcavoy]

Well children basically have no rights.
They are pretty much their parents property, so no it doesn't violate their rights.

I think this only goes to show what the school system is designed for anyhow, creating and managing cattle.

Of course it makes sense to relive teachers of some duties via technology, what with class sizes getting larger and larger each year. It only makes sense.

I do find it utterly disgusting that it would come to this, people looking for quick fixes instead of asking tough questions.

Re:Next: the workplace

[gmack]

What are you talking about? Most places here have those already to keep non employees out of the building.

Re:How to toast RFID tags ?

[Jesrad]

Never mind, everything is here [stoprfid.com].

Re:Security cameras...

[BJZQ8]

Oh by the way, I do work in a school district...and we're constantly bombarded with ads and calls from companies hawking security equipment as the way to prevent whatever bad things parents think are happening to their kids....one package in particular would allow a parent to log-in to a website, enter their "security code" and then get to see a live video of their particular children in their particular class. It was horrendously expensive, but many district don't see cost as a barrier. The salesman I talked to said they're installing the system as fast as they can make them. By the way...how was my previous comment flamebait?

Coming from the point of view of a teacher...

[crios2]

I teach and to me this doesn't sound like such a bad idea. As a homeroom teacher trying to keep track of 25 students or more is a really hard thing to do, let alone a school of 200-300 students. I'm thinking right now about the parents who show up to school and their child isn't around (happens more often that you think) because they got on a bus, or are still in school, or left at a earlier time, or maybe ditched halfway through the day. A system like this would help us to keep track of where students are and possibly alleviate a whole lot of aggravation and panic on the parts of parents and teachers. There is also the paperwork side of this. Teaching is soooooooo much work. I regularly put in 12 - 14 hour days and one thing that would be great is if I didn't have to worry about attendance. There is a lot of attendance paperwork to keep track of, (We SHOULD be doing it on the coputer but the administration seems to have no idea what computers are capable of.) not to mention that in the morning there are a bazillion other things to do along with taking attendance. It would be so nice if they just walked into the school and they were automatically noted. (sigh)

Try Again

[virg_mattes]

> This is a charter school--a privately run school that applies capitalism's "someone doing it for a profit will do it better" principle to higher education.

Charter schools are not private schools, and elementary schools are not higher education. A charter school is a public school with a specialized charter. Google it and you'll find a mass of optimistic and not-so-optimistic descriptions of charter schools.

Virg

Re:And the problem is????

[Ugmo]

What happens when they get out? "Wicked, I'm not being tracked anymore! I can do whatever I want to do, consequence free!"

This line arguement reminds me about my experience in the Air Force. After basic training, where they tell you when to sleep, when to get up, when to eat, what to wear and when to take a dump, you go to Tech School for training. They used to just let you do whatever you wanted once you got to tech school, but it was just like SirSlud said, everyone went batshit insane, ran into town and partook in general mayhem and too much merriment. They had to put a system in place so that you were slowly given back one freedom after another in phases. In phase one you could wear civilian clothes but only inside. Phase two you could wear them outside but you couldn't get off base. I don't remember all the stages but it took six weeks to get to "normal" freedom.

To try to get on topic again, we could say that it is human nature to react to oppression and ill-treatment in exact magnitude in the opposite direction. When people are subjected to extreme controls they will act in an uncontrolled manner when let free. When they are overly controlled, they will expect to be able to control others in like manner once they get in charge. I hope none of those kids gets elected President or to Congress. They will think that it is perfectly all right to try to control the rest of the population the way they were controlled and would probably use all the tools (violence) at their disposal to deal with the "unreasonable" (from their point of view) people who protest.

Re:may I be first to say

[zurab]

If they were scanning you passively, I'd say, ya, it's bordering on 1984. But it's passive.

For now. For how long? These are small details, small details can change - the principle is in place.

Students have to touch a kiosk screen and then, it can only read your tag at less than 20 inches. So, this makes it just another form of swiping a mag-strip card for access control, or presenting a photo ID badge to a security guard. Having been a teacher, I can tell you this would be wonderful. Automating the roll taking process would save lots of time each class period dealing with absent, late, and excused kids.

Automated roll taking? "Hey, Johnny, can you keep my ID tag with you? Me and Sammy gonna skip the class ... ... ... yeah, we'll get some for you too! Thanks dude."

Now, in my opinion, they are going a bit overboard with tracking lots of unnecessary information, such as when they boarded the bus. And even with this being just another form of card swiping, all this electronic tracking may still ruffle privacy activists feathers. But one things for sure, it's definitely not 1984.

But it can be at the snap of their fingers. Minor details can be changed at any moment without notice or anybody's knowledge and approval. The reasoning is:

"hey, we've been doing this for a few months now, nobody has objected, it seems to be going very well - now we are just going to automate the whole process; we'll spend less money on kiosks, save students' time approaching and "registering" themselves with kiosks. And spend more time and money on our kids' education - it's all about our kids, and their future, right?"

Then wait until federal gov't comes in and requires the data be shared with the FBI or schools won't get federal funding. Why not? They are doing it with the libraries.

Small details can change. It's similar to saying - give me all the power to track your every move - but don't be afraid - I will not abuse it; I will only use it for your own benefit. This is what RIAA and John Ashcroft have been saying, and many times getting it too.

Re:Today's kids = tomorrow's workers. Prepare them

[Tin Foil Hat]

Just as you know no limits when it comes to keeping track track them for their protection, your employer and government has an interest in your well-being. Granted, the interest isn't as overarching as the relationship between parent and child; more like rancher and cattle. But show me a rancher who doesn't take care of his cattle, and I'll show you a rancher who's out of business in a year.

Funny, that's exactly what Apologists said about the condition of slaves in the Old South.

By getting the kids accustomed to the Panopticon at an early age, they'll graduate from school better-prepared to take part in the security society.

You seem to be arguing that loss of privacy is enevitable, that we should get over it, and it's really a good thing anyway. That's bullshit. That type of thinking can only lead to more government control over our private lives. The more I hear people spout off such inflamatory nonsense, the more I think about purchasing a gun while I've got the chance. I'll pay in cash, of course. Does that sound threatening? Good, it's supposed to. I'm not threatening you in particular (that is, you'll never be in physical danger from me), but I want to make it very clear how serious the right to basic privacy really is. I, for one, will defend it to the death, and will raise any children I have to do the same.

This boils down to our right to be anonymous in our speech and in our beliefs. Lack of privacy means lack of anonymity. A lack of anonymity means a lack of freedom in speech. A lack of freedom of speech means that we no longer control our own lives.

300 years ago, old farmers probably hated having to get up at oh-dark-hundred to go to the factory as much as you seem to dislike your zero-privacy expectation at work.

What's the point here? 150 years ago (there were no real factories 300 years ago) workers were treated like cattle with little to no respect for their saftey and well-being, least of all their privacy. Disposable and repressed, the factory workers eventually banded together and forced the factory owners to pay attention. Hence labor unions.

I don't know, maybe you'd like to being forced to work 16 hour days, seven days a week, for maybe a tenth of your current pay. Personally, I'm very thankful for the sacrifices those workers made way back then.

Within a generation or so, our presecurity culture will also be abandoned, and 300 years from now, our descendants will look on us and our presecuity culture as just as primitive as we now imagine our preindustrial subsistence-farming ancestors.

Unless we vigorously defend all of our constitutionally guaranteed freedoms, including free speech and the right of anonymous travel (eg: no implanted RFID tags), nobody will know a damn thing about us 300 years from now. Certainly not in any meaningful sense. The revisionist control freaks will make certain of that.