Sunday, March 04, 2007

Children's fingerprints to be stored on secret government database

We parents have been accused of conducting a "false, nebulous debate" by one biometric library retailer. I would argue that the concerns we raise are not false, vague or confused. Indeed they are most coherent, as this blog clearly details the points to debate.

But is it really any surprise parents are concerned with biometric data being taken from our children, some as young as four years old without our consent, when this government has plans, detailed in the Times today, for children aged 11 to 16 to have their fingerprints taken and stored on a secret database?

'Secret' databases are already kept, in schools. Parents are still finding out now, literally years after the event, that their children's biometric fingerprint data has been taken and kept on a school database... and most possibly still on the school database - unless, of course, the schools have used a professional data cleansing company, as the Information Commissioners Office advises, to erase the children's data.

Chambers Dictionary:
secret (adj) kept back from the knowledge of others; guarded against discovery or observation; unrevealed, unidentified; hidden; secluded; a fact, purpose or method that is kept undivulged.

"...With the fingerprinting of all our children, this government is clearly determined to enforce major changes in the relationship between the citizen and the state in a way never seen before.”
David Davis, Shadow Home Secretary

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