Student data grab grows as facial recognition planned for Hong Kong schools

Children attending school in Hong Kong will be monitored in classes and around educational facilities with security cameras and a system that includes facial recognition, according to plans published by police.

A new Safe City Hong Kong website describes a host of technologies and other measures for the island’s schools, according to Radio Free Asia. While ostensibly planned as a school safety measure, the article says residents fear a further transition to the same kind of culture of political informants and trampled civil liberties as are commonly found at schools and universities on the mainland.

The plan also includes perimeter fencing, more thorough vetting for security guards, and infrared motion sensors for schools.

Local teachers told Radio Free Asia that Hong Kong schools face challenges with theft and bullying, but suggested that measures like face and voice biometrics are not proportionate or transparent.

An analysis of data collection in schools published by The Wire argues that India is also part of the trend found in China, and in other countries like the United States, towards mining the data of children. The benefit of these projects in scant, according to The Wire.

An app to track the attendance of Indian teachers launched on Teachers Day in 2019 was resisted by the teachers’ union in Gujarat, in what writer Anita Rampal characteries as an example of technocratic surveillance run amok in the name of education.

In the United States, proponents of increased security technology in schools frequently claim they can be effective in mitigating school shootings.

There is clearly a split among stakeholders, however, on using neural networks in school, even beyond generative AI.

Article Topics

biometrics  |  children  |  facial recognition  |  Hong Kong  |  India  |  schools