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AI Education Government Privacy

New York Bans Facial Recognition In Schools (apnews.com) 22

An anonymous reader quotes a report from the Associated Press: New York state banned the use of facial recognition technology in schools Wednesday, following a report that concluded the risks to student privacy and civil rights outweigh potential security benefits. Education Commissioner Betty Rosa's order leaves decisions on digital fingerprinting and other biometric technology up to local districts. The state has had a moratorium on facial recognition since parents filed a court challenge to its adoption by an upstate district.

[A]n analysis by the Office of Information Technology Services issued last month "acknowledges that the risks of the use of (facial recognition technology) in an educational setting may outweigh the benefits." The report, sought by the Legislature, noted "the potentially higher rate of false positives for people of color, non-binary and transgender people, women, the elderly, and children." It also cited research from the nonprofit Violence Project that found that 70% of school shooters from 1980 to 2019 were current students. The technology, the report said, "may only offer the appearance of safer schools."

Biotechnology would not stop a student from entering a school "unless an administrator or staff member first noticed that the student was in crisis, had made some sort of threat, or indicated in some other way that they could be a threat to school security," the report said. The state report found that the use of digital fingerprinting was less risky and could be beneficial for school lunch payments and accessing electronic tablets and other devices. Schools may use that technology after seeking parental input, Rosa said.
"Schools should be safe places to learn and grow, not spaces where they are constantly scanned and monitored, with their most sensitive information at risk," said Stefanie Coyle, deputy director of the NYCLU's Education Policy Center.
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New York Bans Facial Recognition In Schools

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  • Simple solution (Score:2, Flamebait)

    by rossdee ( 243626 )

    Go back to wearing N95 masks.

    May also stop the spread of colds, flu, and RSV

    • Masks living rent free in your head.

  • Biotechnology would not stop a student from entering a school...

    That depends very much on how it is used - we've all seen how effective a new virus can be at stopping students from entering schools. I suspect you meant biometric technology though which is not the same thing.

  • by a5y ( 938871 )

    "School or prison?" was already a difficult enough challenge without one more dehumanising thing to make them indistinguishable.

  • Just use NFC (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Pinky's Brain ( 1158667 ) on Friday September 29, 2023 @09:05AM (#63886227)

    Presumably they want facial recognition so they can get away with not using turn gates. There are security tags which can be read from meters away now though, so have the kids wear a badge with those and match their location with a camera system to make sure everyone entering has a badge.

    Sure badges can be stolen, but thumbs can be chopped off and facial recognition has high failure rate, nothing is perfect.

  • by DarkOx ( 621550 )

    I have no love for public education. I am not a big fan of government implying they have some right to compel identification where its not required, be it the bus station or an airport for a domestic flight..

    However the law requires children be enrolled in school, be it public/private/or approved homeschool situation. Obviously that requires ensuring people are um actually there. There are obvious reasons while its also a critical requirement to ensure unauthorized persons are not where our societies chi

  • One day somebody will stop dismissing trying to address root causes as left wing nonsense, right?

    If your environment generates a lot of homicidal maniacs, sure, you worry about better security now, but you're a fool to do that to the exclusion of preventing the creation of tomorrow's killers.

  • I don't see a description of what is banned. Just use of facial recognition on school surveillance? Or would it include facial recognition based authentication systems?

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