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.
[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.
Simple solution (Score:2, Flamebait)
Go back to wearing N95 masks.
May also stop the spread of colds, flu, and RSV
Re: (Score:2, Interesting)
The person you're responding to referred to N95 masks specifically and said "may also stop the spread". You're misrepresenting the Cochrane Review [factcheck.org] and overstating the conclusion. The main conclusion is that there's very little evidence either way, and that trying to get people to wear masks in the community probably doesn't do much to slow the spread of disease. Remember there weren't enough N95 masks for the general public to be wearing them, so this is suggesting cloth masks aren't very effective, whic
Re:Simple solution (Score:5, Insightful)
And no, they're not in short supply anymore; that was initially when people were also panic buying toilet paper & hand sanitiser. You can buy all the masks you like at any pharmacy or other place that stocks them.
Re: Getting people to use them, in countries that had reasonably equitable & fair leadership, i.e. not authoritarian, & weren't engaged in polarising "culture wars" & "fake news" nonsense, & which gave clear, concise, coherent, comprehensive public health messaging had few or no problems with compliance. Basically, the countries that treated the COVID-19 pandemic for what it was, i.e. a quickly unfolding public health emergency, & consulted with public health experts on the matter, had the best results & the lowest mortality rates. It's just good science & public health policy.
Re: (Score:2)
Personally I don't think mask mandates are effective.
They're not effective because virtually nobody properly wears an N95. I had a supply of them when the pandemic started AND knew how (from my factory floor days) to properly wear them. If air is leaking out the sides -- instantly obvious for those of us who wear glasses -- it's not effective. It's tricky but not impossible to get a proper seal with them, and once you have that seal you have to actually keep the thing on. Taking it off every 5 minutes to sip your coffee defeats the point and makes it less
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
People were generally following rules, even if we all grumbled about it. People were mostly nice to each other as we got through it.
Yes, we have issues with societal trust on this side of the border, to put it mildly. :(
I would wager though that no higher percentage of Canadians properly wore their N95s than the Americans who chose to wear them. I was in Vancouver shortly after the border re-opened and saw equal percentages of people wearing masks incorrectly. The difference of course is y'all weren't turning it into screaming matches and treating each other like crap. We had a blast in Vancouver on that trip, incidentally. :)
I was
Re: (Score:2)
When I think of the whole thing I just shake my head. Back in very early 2020 I remember writing an email to my parents and in-laws saying, "listen, pay attention to this coronavirus thing. It's reported to have a 4% average mortality rate, but it's much higher in elderly patients. I don't think they'd ever close schools since kids seem very safe from it, but you should expect that the elderly are going to need to stay isolated from kids for a while. We'll have to be using Facetime or something, until th
Re: (Score:2)
I honestly thought you were in Louisiana, which is where I spent the the beginning of the pandemic. "Tracking the hospitalization rate" was the approach our State Government used, with restrictions ending and then being reimposed in concert with the hospitalization rate, and roughly the two week lag between the two that you mention, and the whole idea being to keep them from being overwhelmed. It never got politicized there, though some people tried, and most of that credit goes to the excellent (and sadl
Re: (Score:1)
Masks living rent free in your head.
Biotechnology? (Score:2)
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.
Re: (Score:2)
It's not stopping the video surveillance, just one specific type of post-processing.
Good (Score:1)
"School or prison?" was already a difficult enough challenge without one more dehumanising thing to make them indistinguishable.
Just use NFC (Score:5, Insightful)
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.
Re: (Score:2)
I cut off 3 thumbs just the other day trying to reset my password
Re: (Score:1)
White middle aged males. There's fewer false positives for that niche category than all others, which isn't particularly encouraging.
Re: (Score:2)
Eh? (Score:1)
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
Eventually... (Score:2)
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.
what exactly is banned? (Score:2)
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?