FB pixel

NY state Assembly Member wants moratorium on biometric technology in grade schools

Categories Biometrics News  |  Facial Recognition  |  Schools
NY state Assembly Member wants moratorium on biometric technology in grade schools
 

In the upcoming legislative session, New York state Assembly Member Monica Wallace wants to focus all 2020 efforts on a bill that would suspend the use and acquisition of biometric technology, including facial recognition systems, in public schools until the New York State Education Department (NYSED) has had a chance to properly review the technology, writes Lockport Journal.

The bill was introduced in the 2019 legislative session but it was not discussed in the Senate. The Senate version is sponsored by Sen. Brian Kavanagh.

Last week, Aegis, a facial and object recognition system, became operational in the Lockport school district despite extensive controversy. Aegis software is built by Canadian company SN Technologies.

Lockport schools worked together with NYSED to address a number of privacy concerns, yet implementation was delayed twice. Wallace now says she is still concerned about the technology, biometric data protection and the lack of statewide policy to regulate its use in public schools. Furthermore, she feels state funds invested in biometric technology could be better used on improving educational technology.

“It can be used for security, but it’s also supposed to go to technology … to help the students learn in the new century,” Wallace said.

The district spent 1.4 million out of $4.2 million received to purchase and install the system. Aegis uses biometric facial recognition technology and gun detection to detect and categorize threats. It immediately alerts school personnel about flagged individuals on school property and law enforcement if guns are recognized.

Article Topics

 |   |   |   |   |   | 

Latest Biometrics News

 

Alexa, sue Amazon: tech giant faces class action over voice recordings

Users of Amazon’s Alexa are clear to pursue a class action over allegedly illegal recordings of private conversations. In Seattle,…

 

Epic Games provides Yoti facial age estimation to Bluesky for UK users

Social media platform Bluesky has selected Epic Games’ software, including biometrics-based age estimation from Yoti, to ensure its compliance with…

 

RealSense targets robotics, 3D facial recognition security with $50M in hand

RealSense has cut the cord tying it to Intel Corp, where the 3D camera company was born, with $50 million…

 

Will Congress reaffirm US cyber threat sharing framework before it’s too late?

As the September 30 expiration date for the Cybersecurity Information Sharing Act of 2015 (CISA 2015) rapidly approaches, Congress faces…

 

World pauses German operations for Orb update amid regulatory faceoff

World is facing a potential cease-and-desist order in the Philippines, and has put its iris scanning stations on hold in…

 

QR-based digital ID drives transformation in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa

The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province of Pakistan is taking broader moves toward digital transformation with the launch of the Khyber Pass…

Comments

Leave a Reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Biometric Market Analysis

Most Viewed This Week

Featured Company

Biometrics Insight, Opinion

Digital ID In-Depth

Biometrics White Papers

Biometrics Events