New York Schools Will Test Facial Recognition On Students Despite Objections From State (buzzfeednews.com) 60
An anonymous reader quotes a report from BuzzFeed News: A New York school district will move forward with its facial recognition pilot program next week, despite an explicit order from the New York State Education Department that it wait until a standard for data privacy and security for all state educational agencies is finalized. On Friday, the Lockport school district said it was "confident" that the data collection policy for its facial recognition system was sound enough that it could begin testing it on campuses June 3.
"[State Education Department] representatives previously communicated to the District their recommendation that the System not become operational until the dialogue between the District and SED with regard to student data security and privacy is complete," the statement, sent by district director of technology Robert LiPuma to BuzzFeed News, said. "However, the District's Initial Implementation Phase of the System (which will commence June 3, 2019 and continue through August 31, 2019) will not include any student data being entered into the System database or generated by the System." Reached by phone, JP O'Hare, a representative of the New York State Education Department, would not say whether the department knew Lockport planned to go ahead with its facial recognition test in spite of the department's request for a delay. Lockport said that its facial recognition system should not be a privacy concern because it "does not compile information on and track the movements of all District students, staff and visitors." Instead, the system is "limited to identifying whether an individual whose photograph has been entered into the System database is on District property (i.e., is visible on one of the District's security cameras)." But it also said the individuals who may be entered into the database included those who are prohibited from being on District property, "such as suspended students or staff."
"[State Education Department] representatives previously communicated to the District their recommendation that the System not become operational until the dialogue between the District and SED with regard to student data security and privacy is complete," the statement, sent by district director of technology Robert LiPuma to BuzzFeed News, said. "However, the District's Initial Implementation Phase of the System (which will commence June 3, 2019 and continue through August 31, 2019) will not include any student data being entered into the System database or generated by the System." Reached by phone, JP O'Hare, a representative of the New York State Education Department, would not say whether the department knew Lockport planned to go ahead with its facial recognition test in spite of the department's request for a delay. Lockport said that its facial recognition system should not be a privacy concern because it "does not compile information on and track the movements of all District students, staff and visitors." Instead, the system is "limited to identifying whether an individual whose photograph has been entered into the System database is on District property (i.e., is visible on one of the District's security cameras)." But it also said the individuals who may be entered into the database included those who are prohibited from being on District property, "such as suspended students or staff."
Authoritarian States (Score:3)
Comment removed (Score:4, Insightful)
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Am I missing something? Why wouldn't that just be disallowed?
You can claim that you need to carry a weapon for religious reasons, but you still won't be allowed to bring it onto school property.
Religious grounds flies only just so far... even in a country that permits religious freedom.
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You can claim that you need to carry a weapon for religious reasons, but you still won't be allowed to bring it onto school property.
Wrong. The Sikh religion requires males to carry a weapon [wikipedia.org], and they are allowed to bring them to school [reason.com].
Religious grounds flies only just so far... even in a country that permits religious freedom.
Number of stabbings by Sikhs in America's schools: 0.
Maybe freedom doesn't need to be repressed as much as you think. But the authoritarians thank you for your support.
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What about people that don't want vaccinations on religious grounds? Should they also be allowed to attend public schools?
Does it endanger other people?
Your right to swing your fist ends where my nose begins. Sikh knives don't harm other people. Neither does face paint.
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Sure, and wearing masks in public doesn't harm anyone either, but wearing a mask at some places will still get you arrested.
If they wanted to restrict it, they could simply dictate that it was not "appropriate" except at school sanctioned events.
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I'm wondering how hard is this system to fool? Make a weird face, puff your cheeks out, draw an eye on the palm of each hand and hold them up to the sides of your face whenever you pass the camera? Does the system slam all the gates shut if it detects someone who isn't in the database?
This sounds like something you can tell the PTA when they ask what steps you're taking to protect the school from, well, people with unfamiliar faces. I don't know if it will actually do any good, aside from providing brief e
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The moment a bright individual realizes that you can laser cut make-up templates that make most people appear to be the same person to facial recognition systems... *grins*
Or that by simply changing something about your face every day tuned to the system's weakness.
If you can make the false positive/false negative ratio too high the system will be unworkable. And nothing is better at bucking the system than kids.
Re: You're On Squid! (Score:1)
And when people are sufficiently unidentifiable, they can start carrying those spring loaded center punches to snap in the lenses around them. Pop pop pop all the lenses! What fun!
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>I'm wondering how hard is this system to fool?
Why would you want to fool the system?
Good lord, have you ever met a teenager?
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I don't think there has been a better time to come to school with face paint for religious reasons.
Because that will make a kid hard to identify? He'll really blend in, becoming practically anonymous with the juggalo face paint.
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No privacy at school (Score:3)
"should not be a privacy concern"
There's no privacy in school, everybody in the building knows exactly how stupid you are, that you are always late, what drugs you take, what music you like, which sport you're good at.
Also, after one year, you'll have been in the background of 2981734 selfies, all posted on the internet and recognizable by any FR.
Re: Lockport School District is about to be bankru (Score:2)
Somebody on the School Board must be related to somebody selling the hardware. Early adopters ho! What leading edge lemmings they will soon seem.
Having Cameras Pointed At Your Face Is Good! (Score:3)
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Policy vs Security (Score:3)
Notice how the concern is SECURITY, but the acceptable resolution is POLICY.
THESE ARE NOT EVEN REMOTELY THE SAME THINGS.
What are the odds that their policy is to dump the content to AWS, which will land in a publicly accessible S3 bucket by the end of the year!?
Re: More interested in the shape recognition app (Score:1)
Also, backpacks with bombs in them will be easily recognisable, because nothing sticks out like a student carrying a backpack in school.
Why is this needed? (Score:1)
Do the guards and staff all suffer from prosopagnosia? Can't recognize faces?
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Random illegal immigrants are not wondering around getting a free education.
Later when a person gets a mil/edu/gov job they can show they attended/got a US education.
That their years of education was documented as a face entering. What days, days per year.
No months and years are missing.
Missed weeks/months due to a medical condition? The missing time is a fit with the face.
Test and exam time. Everyone who attended cl
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The face is linked to one person.
Who was in class for many years. Re "track of"
The exam is the part that people can consider.
A person who never attended any "class", who was never seen at any tutorial?
Now says they are a "name" on a list and wants to sit the exam on the day?
Facial recognition allows a link between citizenship, enrollment, classes, tests, proj
Or a stranger who can walk (Score:2)
Either a student, or a random stranger who is capable of walking away from the camera in three hours it takes for a cop to respond to a yet another report of "the system doesn't recognize someone at the school".
Lockport is Timothy McVeigh's hometown (Score:2)