Texas High School Student Loses Lawsuit Challenging RFID Tracking Requirement 412
Chris453 writes "Earlier today, a Texas High School student named Andrea Hernandez and her family lost the first round of the lawsuit filed to prevent her school district from forcing its students to wear RFID badges for tracking purposes. The judge in the case declared that the district's compromise for the student (a badge without the battery) was sufficient and dismissed any First Amendment issues. The badges are RFIDs powered by built-in batteries and one of the concerns was that the badges would be used to track students off-campus. Interestingly enough, the school district claims in court documents that 'The badges do not work off campus (PDF).' However, on their website, the school district confirms that it is conceivable that an off-campus RFID reader could access badge serial numbers, but tries to downplay the significance: 'Therefore, an intruder or "hacker" can only learn that the tag serial number is, for example, #69872331, but that does not provide any useful information. Has the district committed perjury by claiming that the active RFIDs magically deactivate themselves when off school property?"
Sorry dude (Score:5, Insightful)
If it's any consolation, the rest of us are only marginally human beings in the eyes of the state, and are still subject to being tracked like cattle if we go out to anywhere public, or use any service or product. On the bright side, you're getting indoctrinated to it early.
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Re:Sorry dude (Score:5, Interesting)
For the first 30 years of its use in the 1800s, dude was a nongendered term used to mock how someone dressed(today, we use the term "metrosexual" in much the same way, albeit only referring to men).
Gradually it changed to mean "an idiot from back east who has no clue", and then to "those city slickers who are paying us to to let them play cowboy".
Its appropriation by the surfer culture in the 60s and their feminization of the word "dudette" created the perception that dude is a gendered term, but general usage still supports its equal usage.
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Gradually it changed to mean "an idiot from back east who has no clue", and then to "those city slickers who are paying us to to let them play cowboy".
Or to those losers who pay for a reverse cowgirl at a "ranch" in Nevada.
Re:Sorry dude (Score:4, Insightful)
Well, just students. In Saudi-Arabia, every woman is tracked via her cellphone. If she is found to try leaving the state, her male guardian (every woman has a mostly legally responsible guardian like a husband, brother or father) is notified by SMS. Of course, that's just a compromise as, strictly speaking, women are not allowed to move without their guardian's supervision in public at all, at penalty of flaying.
We're ok with all that because Saudi-Arabia has a whole lot of oil.
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Well, just students. In Saudi-Arabia, every woman is tracked via her cellphone. If she is found to try leaving the state, her male guardian (every woman has a mostly legally responsible guardian like a husband, brother or father) is notified by SMS. Of course, that's just a compromise as, strictly speaking, women are not allowed to move without their guardian's supervision in public at all, at penalty of flaying.
We're ok with all that because Saudi-Arabia has a whole lot of oil.
We're okay with lots of stuff if there's a whole lot of oil involved.
Re:Sorry dude (Score:4, Informative)
Not to take away from the gravity of the punishment, but they don't get flayed, they get flogged. Still very painful, and dangerous, but not quite as extreme.
And we're not okay with it, they just happen to have the rest of the world by the balls, at the moment. That will change, soon enough.
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Not to take away from the gravity of the punishment, but they don't get flayed, they get flogged. Still very painful, and dangerous, but not quite as extreme.
And we're not okay with it, they just happen to have the rest of the world by the balls, at the moment. That will change, soon enough.
You do realize that there is a lot of Oil in the world and the USA is currently working on using up everyone else's Oil before we dive too far into ours?
That is part of the USA's long term goal, use up everyone elses Oil so all that is left is OUR oil. When we are the only ones with Oil, then we win or proffit, or something.
Re:Sorry dude (Score:4, Interesting)
You have a lot to learn if you think that nuclear weapons can do very much to make the Saudis give up their oil.
All they need to do is prevent us from getting it. And since Europe and China use more than we do from the Mideast, we'd then have to deal with them becoming very angry at us.
And let's be fair, it's their country. The fact that they can flog women isn't really our problem directly. It is something they need to work out themselves, and they will, like we are.
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You're not a human being in the eyes of the state, and as such subject to being tracked like cattle.
FTFY
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Corporations are people with rights. Why not us?
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Tinker vs DesMoine School district
"constitutional rights do not stop at the schoolhouse gates"
While minors have some restrictions compared to adults, they're clearly humans in the eyes of the state (too much so in some cases, where the state seems to think that a fertilized egg is a human).
This is an interesting case at a higher level. Today it's RFID tracking, with an explicit object needed. But the technology is not too far from just doing the tracking using image processing. It's already being done in
Re:Sorry dude (Score:5, Informative)
I like the fact that Slashdot is conflating this to a tracking complaint when the case is more of a "freedom of religion" case than anything else. The tracking bit is tangential to the meat of the case.
Summation. Student thinks RFID chip is the "mark of the beast" and refuses to wear badge on religious grounds. School offers badge without chip. Student's parent instead wants entire program removed because wearing the badge is "compelled speech" supporting the program and by extension supporting the "mark of the beast".
There's some other complaints in the case but that's what it revolves around and none of the complaints have to do with tracking.
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Way to try to come off with the objectivity when we're trying to rally and foster our own personal agenda in something loosely related, BTW.
Re:Sorry dude (Score:5, Informative)
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Shame on you.
Re:Sorry dude (Score:5, Insightful)
I am not a fan of badges, but badges are a fact of work life so we might as well train the kids to wear badges. After all, if the kids are full human they should be encourages to do the same things as other human. And more and more badges are RFID.
Right, get them accustomed to it early, like respecting authority and always doing what you're told without question. Fact of life.
For instance, presuming these are not self power tags,
From TFS: "The badges are RFIDs powered by built-in batteries..."
Any infringement on right have to balanced. Young children in school are required to stay with a teacher even to go the bathroom. This is acceptable to most people. In high school, there is more freedom but you are required to be in school. Frankly, RFID tags are less invasive method and more accurate to insure the student is where he or she is supposed to be. There are many cases in which a student claims to be somewhere, but the records show they weren't. With an RFID tag teachers mistakes will not put the kid in jeopardy. Sure, kids switch and give badges to others, so the system is not perfect, but it will do more to protect students who operate in good faith.
It's been a long time since I was a minor, and I don't have children, so I suppose my perspective is skewed, but at the risk of sounding like one of those "must reject technology or anything that's not the old ways" people, children have managed to survive to adulthood without RFID tags. Sure, some kids have had terrible things occur to them, but I do not believe you can legitimately solve societal issues with technological mandates.
Re:Sorry dude (Score:5, Insightful)
... I do not believe you can legitimately solve societal issues with technological mandates.
Nor with legislation.
Read the PDF (Score:5, Informative)
...the chip in the Smart ID badge also enables school staff to locate a student on a campus with a very large student population.16 The campus is equipped with sensors to read the card and school staff can determine the general whereabouts of the student carrying the card.17 The sensors do not give an exact reading or pinpoint the precise location of a student (e.g. a specific classroom), but it would show whether the student is in a certain wing of the school.18 The Smart ID badges work only within the school campus that has been equipped with sensors to read them.19 The badges do not work off campus.
Depends on what the meaning of is is (Score:5, Insightful)
Sounds like any perjury on their part would hinge on what it means to work and whether the judge allows them to make their own definition of the word.
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If they lied about the tags not working outside of the school, then that's perjury, period. None of this Clinton-esque bullshit.
Oh, as if the Obama-esque bullshit is any better? Or the idiot before him?
Politics aside, it won't be considered perjury. They'll come back with some bullshit like "well, technically they could be picked up, but the data is meaningless", which will fly...right up until the point where people realize that the "obfuscated" RFID tag numbers are actually the student ID number, or something equally as blatant and easily traceable back to a person.
By that point, it will be too late, and RFID-enabled schools wil
Re:Read the PDF (Score:5, Insightful)
I think it is fairly clear that it is the ability of staff to track students location that only works when the student is on campus. Of course it would have been better to qualify that with a statement that the card will still respond to other readers:
...the chip in the Smart ID badge also enables school staff to locate a student on a campus with a very large student population.16 The campus is equipped with sensors to read the card and school staff can determine the general whereabouts of the student carrying the card.17 The sensors do not give an exact reading or pinpoint the precise location of a student (e.g. a specific classroom), but it would show whether the student is in a certain wing of the school.18 The Smart ID badges work only within the school campus that has been equipped with sensors to read them.19 The badges do not work off campus.
I agree. I think the "perjury" comment was there just for inflammatory purposes.
Re:Read the PDF (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Read the PDF (Score:5, Insightful)
Well it kind of is perjury. The badges do indeed "work" off campus, in that if pinged by and RFID scanner they respond with their unique ID code.
A stalker or someone who wanted to do harm to a specific student doesn't need access to their full records, they just need to determine that ID code and use it to track them.
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Well it kind of is perjury. The badges do indeed "work" off campus, in that if pinged by and RFID scanner they respond with their unique ID code.
A stalker or someone who wanted to do harm to a specific student doesn't need access to their full records, they just need to determine that ID code and use it to track them.
It is incorrect information. In order for it to be "perjury" it has to be shown to be material to the outcome of the case, which is possible but less clear.
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Well it kind of is perjury. The badges do indeed "work" off campus, in that if pinged by and RFID scanner they respond with their unique ID code.
A stalker or someone who wanted to do harm to a specific student doesn't need access to their full records, they just need to determine that ID code and use it to track them.
In context, they're referring to the ability of staff to use them to locate students. Perjury is determined by reading all of a party's submissions and statements to the court, not just one sentence out of context.
Re:Read the PDF (Score:5, Insightful)
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It's not. It's taking one sentence out of the brief and out of context. It's also a rather pointless sentence with relation to the actual issues being viewed by the court.
As far as the ruling is concerned and tracking and privacy is concerned... they defined working as "on a campus equipped with sensors". The school is not capable of tracking a student that is off campus therefore they do not work off campus.
The whole case is basically a religious freedom case and has very little to do with privacy or track
Re:Read the PDF (Score:4, Informative)
Well it kind of is perjury. The badges do indeed "work" off campus, in that if pinged by and RFID scanner they respond with their unique ID code.
Not really - perjury is a willful act intended to deceive. Disagreeing about what constitutes "working" or making a statement you believe is accurate based on your knowledge - i.e. work means able to identify a particular student using data stored in the system's computer and so they don't work to track individual students by identity even if you can still read a RFID code - would not be perjury.
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If you're agreeing, you're being a tool. The tags don't magically fail to work off campus. If I figure out what brand/model of reader or what protocol the tags use, I can read them OFF campus. If I'm not caring about FCC regs, I can greatly extend the range of the reader.
They're pathetically stupid, lying, or worse, both.
To think that it's an empty inflamatory remark without basis is being ignorant.
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If you're agreeing, you're being a tool. The tags don't magically fail to work off campus. If I figure out what brand/model of reader or what protocol the tags use, I can read them OFF campus. If I'm not caring about FCC regs, I can greatly extend the range of the reader.
They're pathetically stupid, lying, or worse, both.
To think that it's an empty inflamatory remark without basis is being ignorant.
Bullshit. At worst, it is ill-informed, not perjury. The plaintiff's objection is the ability of school staff to track them. School staff does not have off-site readers. "Perjury" is clearly used here to inflame.
From wikipedia: Perjury, also known as forswearing, is the willful act of swearing a false oath or of falsifying an affirmation to tell the truth, whether spoken or in writing, concerning matters material to a judicial proceeding.[1][A] That is, the witness falsely promises to tell the truth about
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The plaintiff's objection is that the RFID chip is "the mark of the beast" and that having to wear it or a badge that looks like the RFID badge is compelled speech supporting the "mark of the beast".
Yeah, the RFID chip is the mark of the beast, but the badge without RFID is not the mark of the beast? Riiiiight.
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> I agree. I think the "perjury" comment was there just for inflammatory purposes.
Well, you could make an argument that they're full of shit when they say they're tracking students ratehr than whoever is carrying the badges. But that could just be ignorance rather than perjury.
Re:Read the PDF (Score:5, Informative)
The badges work at all times, the look-up table that correlates the badge number to a person is internal to the school. RFID comes in both short and long range versions - I assume this is a longer range one (it has a battery - the short range ones are usually RF field powered). It may show up up on a Fedex warehouse RFID scanner or other scanner, but as a number with no associated data. I am not sure how widespread RFID response fields are outside of warehouses and malls?
In any event, the repeated numbers *666* should not be part of the string, just so the petty number of the beast argument can be tossed.
Many companies use RFID badges for timecards punch-in to work and for access to various doors, both at the entrance and exit and to control access to various areas for assorted reasons.
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The badges work at all times, the look-up table that correlates the badge number to a person is internal to the school.
But, the same person will always have the same number. Imagine I work at the mall and have access to all the scanners in the mall (probably not a realistic situation granted) and I see a hot girl come in that I would like to stalk. I can, with a bit of effort figure out the ID on her card and set up alerts for whenever she enters the building. More likely, imagine someone is accused of shoplifting, same situation. They can read the card and they can see who they are scanning, there's no need for the sch
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This is true, you can stalk a person and build up a data base of students, and in time someone might do this commercially. They should use an encrypted inquiry method, where the card will only answer to the correct interrogation string, which can be robustly encrypted. (these methods are established and secure, the military has established ways to do this, as has the auto and garage door industry).
With such a method, the school badges would only respond to a secure school inquiry. They may, in fact, have
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If you can buy the sensors, you can read the tag- period. It's not clear at all to someone who's honestly versed in the practice of RF Identification that it does ANYTHING other than report it's ID. Powered tags have varying extra abilities. Things like faster turn on. Extended range at lower reader powers (tag senses the read pulse and POWERS ON, giving a chirp reply...). That sort of thing.
The DOD has badge readers that will identify their DOD badge docked into a holder that do this at hundreds of fe
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If you can buy the sensors, you can read the tag- period. It's not clear at all to someone who's honestly versed in the practice of RF Identification that it does ANYTHING other than report it's ID. Powered tags have varying extra abilities. Things like faster turn on. Extended range at lower reader powers (tag senses the read pulse and POWERS ON, giving a chirp reply...). That sort of thing.
The DOD has badge readers that will identify their DOD badge docked into a holder that do this at hundreds of feet from the reader- as an example. These tags? They're IN that class of devices.
Either the School District's stupid (probable), lying, or both.
It amazes me to no end just how friggin' stupid the lot is here on /. that they can't even manage to understand that concept and are willing to defend the stupidity we're seeing exhibited here by the District.
Just to be clear I was saying that the school district were not committing perjury, not that the cards could not be traced off campus. They were saying that THEIR SYSTEM WOULD NOT ALLOW STAFF to track people off campus, and that's all. That's why I added "Of course it would have been better to qualify that with a statement that the card will still respond to other readers" - what they said was true but did not mean that nobody could track students off-campus
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Here is a malicious use scenario: 1) Malicious user points own RFID reader at target at school, gets ID #
2) Malicious user then tracks target to time when alone, following that ID#.
It might be even easier than that if RFID numbers are allocated in batches; Identify one student and others in a similar range would also be students.
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an intruder or "hacker" can only learn that the tag serial number is, for example, #69872331, but that does not provide any useful information
I don't think the author/courts understand how RFID works. That is, essentially, all it does: provide wirelessly an ID number for the badge it just scanned. If you can do this anywhere with the right type of scanner, it is no longer secure.
How hard is it to clone this RFID serial number so you can come and go in the school posing as the student? Almost trivial with the right(rather inexpensive) equipment. Get a programmable RFID fob on the right frequency, program it with that 'serial #' and bam, you are th
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I sometimes triangulate with spaghetti but it doesn't sound very good
Perjury? (Score:5, Insightful)
No. If the "system" "works" in such a way, then once you break that way, that system breaks. Now, you may be left with multiple parts of that system, in different places, and maybe another system could use that piece for it's purpose, but it's not perjury to say that those cards do not "work" off campus, because here "work" is defined by being an active part (ID badge) of an active system (school RFID system), with an intended purpose.
It's sorta weird to see how RFID is associated with privacy. The student is at school, in their physical body, that we all can see with our built-in eyes! Normally, they're accounted for via some "roll-call" in the mornings (or at least that's how we used to do it back in the day), and then that information was sent to the office where it was processed, and a larger set of information was sent to the state, and everyone that was at school that day was accounted for, it's been happening for a long time now. So what if they want to put teachers at all corners of the halls and watch all of the students, what's wrong with that? ...other than it being waaay to expensive for the tax payers to pay the teachers. So instead, they try this idea, and everyone is trying to freak out over a privacy issue. I don't get it, but I'm old and it's probably time that I just move on to yelling at the neighborhood kids about my fine grass.
Re:Perjury? (Score:4, Insightful)
It makes it easy and inexpensive to automate following you around. To follow a single person using the Eyeball Mk1 takes about ten people. To follow them by RFID takes a few inexpensive readers scattered around. You can track students for good reasons - or for bad ones (stalking etc),
Not that I want to take a knee-jerk attitude to this and say it must be banned. But it has unintended consequences, which may not have been thought through.
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Also, Repent Harlequin Said The Tick-Tock Man. [wikipedia.org]
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Let's say I own a mall. I install RFID readers at all the entrances and exits. When someone is caught shoplifting security reads their student ID (without their knowledge) and puts it in my system so that security is called whenever they enter the premises. That's a bit creepy no? Now imagine security is a bit less scrupulous, and they see a hot girl come through the doors, they look at the scanner and see #124785678 just entered, add that to the system so they can follow her around whenever she goes sh
Battery? (Score:5, Insightful)
Active RFID tags cost a fuckload of a lot more than passive ones, not to mention they occasionally need the battery replaced. Never mind the privacy issues here, why the hell do we allow public schools to waste so much taxpayer money on frivolous BS like this?
I have two passive RFID badges I use on a daily basis, and they do their thing just fine. Hold it up to the pad next to the door, the door goes "click", done.
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To whit, the tags can be used outside of the school to locate the children. So...they lied. Seriously. If it can read attendance the way you're describing, it can be used elsewhere. RFID doesn't magically turn itself completely off and not work outside of their schools.
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"Q. What does this pilot cost and what is the projected additional revenue expected?
A. NISD will spend approximately $261,000 on this pilot for the two schools and expects to realize $2 million in additional revenues."
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I thought this was about making sure students were coming to school on the days they should be, attending the classes that they should be, nor leaving campus during the day, etc. Now we're talking about revenue? From where does that revenue actually come?
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School funds are typically tied directly to daily student attendance. If they expect the RFID system to give them more revenues, then they somehow believe it will be more accurate than traditional roll-calls -- or at least give them more false positives.
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From where does that revenue actually come?
From you (assuming that you pay federal taxes). The school is projecting that this system will reduce truancy and allow them to report a larger number of students attending class each day. Schools receive federal funds based on the average number of students in attendance (I am not quite sure how the formula works). In part this will allow them to say that "Johnny" was at school today, even though none of his teachers saw him in order to mark him on the attendance sheet (which they will not have to keep any
Re:Battery? (Score:4, Insightful)
I think that's his entire point... passive RFIDs can be tracked just fine like the school wants, so why waste all the extra money? He's not saying anything about whether or not it's right for them to be tracked. Besides, most RFIDs can be blocked easily enough, especially those that are embedded in cards.
Maybe... (Score:5, Insightful)
...just maybe if she didn't include a hypothesis that wasn't absolutely looney-tunes, she would have a better argument.
Using the bible as a basis for legal argument is dumb. It can be *part* of an argument, to show history, but this whole "mark of the beast" Revelations crap is just crap.
FTFA:
Evangelicals drive around with drivers' licenses with numbers and a photo and other state/work/school IDs. They don't have a religious objection to those. So why is it suddenly a religious objection when it's a high school ID even without an RFID chip?
Someone's telling tall tales here, and it's not necessarily the school being mistaken about the utility of RFID off campus.
I want an argument against RFID badges that doesn't include a batshit-insane argument about Satan, because I think there are legitimate privacy concerns about RFID being trackable outside of their intended environments. But this gets drowned out in the herp-a-derp religiosity, which only paints those with real concerns as shiny-side-out tinfoil haberdashers.
This girl and her dad aren't helping. Not. One. Bit.
--
BMO
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Let's see some citations for that.
I don't remember any constitutional clauses backing the apocalypse myths of any religion.
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Doesn't have to tie to apocalypse myths of any religion.
The First Amendment is explicit.
Prohibitions to the free exercise thereof include the following:
Wisconsin v. Yoder [wikipedia.org]
Lamb's Chapel v. Center Moriches Union Free School District [wikipedia.org]
Rosenberger [wikipedia.org]
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>The Constitution
Where? Point this out. It's a relatively short document. This should be easy enough, right?
>and Supreme Court decisions don't agree with you.
Name them.
--
BMO
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Try going through life without a state issued ID.
--
BMO
Re: Try going through life without a state issued (Score:2)
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> why would I need them in a free country?
Because you live in civilization. We do not live in an anarchy.
But previously....
>So, until the late 90s
So you needed a state ID. You couldn't get through life without one at that point.
The government also assigned you a Social Security number and failing that, you got an IRS tax number, which identifies you in "the system." - because either one of these is mandatory to be able to file your taxes.
Why are these *not* a "Mark of the Beast" while a school ID *
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Let me know when you find that "free country". It's sure as hell none of the countries I know about, including all the western democratic ones, are free.
Micowave Oven (Score:2, Interesting)
Just pop the tag in a microwave oven for a minute or two. No more RFID.
"I don't know what happened. Maybe the Lord don't like RFID tags."
After enough tags go poof, the school administration will probably give up on having you wear one.
Physical tag with barcode? Sharpie the barcode to another number, maybe. Or generate your own barcode and forge a new tag. There are so many possibilities to screw with the administration that it seems like it would be more fun to see how long until they broke.
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Re:Micowave Oven (Score:4, Insightful)
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"It's not about a working tag or not. It's about COMPLIANCE."
Totally agree. And her religious objection is also about compliance. The school requires compliance, and her religious belief is that compliance endangers her soul.
So let the school think she is complying. When in reality she is sabotaging. Microwave, altered tag, forged tag. The school officials get to go "See. we get our way. She's being a good-little-citizen." All the while she can also say to herself (and her deity) "Look. I am not al
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After enough tags go poof, the school administration will probably give up on having you wear one.
Or expel you. Yes, school administrators will expel a student over something this petty.
Unique random ID *is* "useful information" (Score:5, Insightful)
"Therefore, an intruder or "hacker" can only learn that the tag serial number is, for example, #69872331, but that does not provide any useful information."
Joe Stalker sits in a car, watches student walk by, and notes the RFID that shows up on his scanner. From that point on the student is trackable by RFID.
Sure, the ID# doesn't provide any personal information by itself, but now any personal information that is found (e.g., follows student to home address) can now be uniquely associated with that student and tracked. The exact reason why a unique ID is useful in the school context is also why it would be equally useful in other contexts. If it works at all, then, yes, it does "work off campus". The fact that you can't access the school's database mapping from RFID to student personal information is irrelevant. Someone could build their own database.
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> The fact that you can't access the school's database mapping from
> RFID to student personal information is irrelevant. Someone could
> build their own database.
Or just wait until someone loses a laptop. [slashdot.org]
Re:Unique random ID *is* "useful information" (Score:5, Informative)
This wasn't about privacy. Not entirely. (Score:4)
Andrea Hernandez is the student who refused to wear the badge because she believed it was the 'mark of the beast' and offended her religion. This case wasn't just about privacy. It was also about the boundry when a person's religion conflicts with secular regulations.
Easy Fix... (Score:5, Funny)
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That's the thing about the case that bothers me the most. I'm not religious so I'm a little biased, but what exactly does the ID card have to do with the so-called "mark of the beast"? The school has a right (and well, responsibility) to know where students are during school hours, and takes attendance because it only receives money when students show up. The school even offered to disable the RFID, which should have dealt with the "mark" issue. And like the situation involving the nurse fired for refusing
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Andrea Hernandez is the student who refused to wear the badge because she believed it was the 'mark of the beast' and offended her religion. This case wasn't just about privacy. It was also about the boundry when a person's religion conflicts with secular regulations.
But the compromise was to give her a badge without the chip and the family is still saying it is not acceptable. So, without the id tag, there is no mark of the beast, but evidently it is still a problem. That would seem to imply that some other issue is the real cause.
I wonder if the parents had her immunized as required by state law to attend school. I only ask, not because of any religious objection to vaccinations, but at the doctor's office, your chart is coded with and id code. Why would the family
Mooo! (Score:2)
So... give them something they WANT! (Score:4, Insightful)
I'll bet if they gave each student a free cell phone (which "may or may not" contain tracking technology) that they can keep with themselves during school, they'd be ALL over that!
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This. I'd say bundle it with a free android tablet or whatever, and require that tablet be on hand for class assignments and presentations. Social engineering beats legislation every time.
Just nuke the card... (Score:2)
Literally, toss it in the microwave and nuke it for a few seconds, that will destroy any electronics in it, leaving the badge in tact (well mostly except for maybe a few burn marks...
"Has the district committed perjury... (Score:2)
...by claiming that the active RFIDs magically deactivate themselves when off school property?"
No. They are probably stupid enough to believe it.
RFID is a wireless barcode (Score:3)
And after all, these kids are a product of their generation!
*rimshot*
Well no duh they lost (Score:3)
They're being totally unreasonable. According to the legal document linked, the school actually offered to compromise and allow her to wear a badge with no RFID chip at all. They just needed to give her something with a barcode or whatever so she could check out books in the library and pay for school lunches under the new system. The dad still refused because the badge was now "the mark of the beast" and they would not "go against the teachings of the LORD." [emphasis not mine]
Thing is, she already carries a badge every day under their current system. He's claiming that a simple piece of ID has now become the work of Satan because someone asked to put an RFID chip in it, even if they change their mind and agree not to.
Re:Well no duh they lost (Score:4, Interesting)
According to the legal document linked, the school actually offered to compromise and allow her to wear a badge with no RFID chip at all.
The condition on that "compromise" was that she and her parents would not share their objections to the program with others (my recollection was that it actually went so far as to ask them to endorse the program, but I may be remembering that incorrectly). In addition, they were not allowed to tell anyone else that they had reached this accommodation with the school district.
There is a simple solution to this (Score:5, Insightful)
Every student should refuse to wear the badges. They don't have to destroy the badges or anything like that. Just get together and toss them in a big pile. Problem solved. They're not going to suspend every single student. Of course I come from the tail end of a generation where burning draft cards, holding sit-ins and other acts of civil disobedience were not such a foreign idea.
Re: (Score:2)
Every student should refuse to wear the badges. They don't have to destroy the badges or anything like that. Just get together and toss them in a big pile. Problem solved. They're not going to suspend every single student. Of course I come from the tail end of a generation where burning draft cards, holding sit-ins and other acts of civil disobedience were not such a foreign idea.
The compromise proposed was a student id without an RFID chip in it. Are you saying that students shouldn't even have to have student IDs or just RFID enabled ones?
Re: (Score:3)
Schools have used student IDs for decades, usually with bar codes. Same with libraries, workplaces, drivers licenses, etc. We are already indoctrinated and have been for generations.
Yes, we have been indoctrinated into carrying around identification cards/badges that can be used to identify us. However, the fact the we are being identified and by who and for what purpose is known to the holder of the card (i.e. we have to take it out and show it), or if wearing it, we can see those who can see us and our cards. Tracking is not involved in the current system unless you swipe the card for access and again you know and can control what is being tracked. The new system is for ubiquitous id
It's not the RFID at issue here (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
The family objects to any ID that has a number on it for religious reasons. They were offered a school ID without RFID and they turned it down.
What about drivers license, social security, bank accounts, postal address, ip address, etc. I don't mean to mock their religious beliefs, but I am curious at what level they are willing to compromise their values (if any)?
Re: (Score:2)
Good (Score:2)
Re: (Score:3)
Counterpoint: I would have liked to see her be successful. There is no reason for government to be operating schools. In an ideal situation, government provides a stipend for education and the student picks an appropriate school. Private schools are not limited by the Bill of Rights and can implement whatever policies they like with the restriction that they're still trying to attract students. The whole point of the Bill of Rights is to limit government.
If this were Canada (Score:2)
They would have declared here a distinct society and built her a special school just for her already..
The worst part of all this... (Score:2)
I fall into that heavy geek group of go-fuck-yourself when you want to search me, track me, or otherwise invade my privacy or my right to not be cattle. However, I could do without people like her standing up and taking on that position, publicly. The taint of religious idiocy just contaminates everyone else who actually takes issue with it for real-world concerns and sensibilities that don't involve the battle of two deities and an attempt by some "new world order" to track a human being by some goofy stam
Re: (Score:3)
You probably need it to get to your locker in the first place.
Re:Leave in locker. (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Leave in locker. (Score:5, Interesting)
Heck, I was trusted enough to be given a physical key to get into our computer lab (8 Apple II's) in the afternoon to work on them.
Re: (Score:3)
You can however use it to track location once you know who holds what badge number.
Most slashdotters do not have these active RFID units, we have passive ones with much shorter useful ranges.
The student should just remove the battery at the end of each school day.
Re: (Score:2)
You can however use it to track location once you know who holds what badge number.
Most slashdotters do not have these active RFID units, we have passive ones with much shorter useful ranges.
The student should just remove the battery at the end of each school day.
Usually, the battery is embeded in the badge and not removable. However, one could just stick it in a metal case as the signal is pretty weak to start with. Then again, there is always the microwave -- just a short burst, not enough to destroy the card, just the electronics.