North Ayrshire school meal payment verification
Occurred: October 2021
Can you improve this page?
Share your insights with us
Nine schools in North Ayrshire, Scotland, have started taking payments for school lunches by using facial recognition to scan the faces of pupils.
According to the Financial Times, CBD Cunninghams, the company that developed the system, claims the system speeds up queues and protects students better against COVID-19 than the card payments and fingerprint scanners the schools used previously.
Privacy advocates reckon the new system is not needed, amounts to facial recognition normalisation, and operates without explicit consent.
The programme was suspended after the UK Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) responded to the controversy by encouraging schools to take a 'less intrusive' approach where possible.
Operator: North Ayrshire Council
Developer: CRB Cunninghams
Country: UK
Sector: Education
Purpose: Verify meal payments
Technology: Facial recognition
Issue: Privacy; Appropriateness/need
Transparency: Privacy
System
News, commentary, analysis
https://www.ft.com/content/af08fe55-39f3-4894-9b2f-4115732395b9
https://uk.news.yahoo.com/schools-facial-recognition-lunches-190622992.html
https://news.sky.com/story/facial-recognition-used-to-take-payments-from-school-children-12437234
https://www.computing.co.uk/news/4038781/uk-schools-bring-facial-recognition-student-lunch-payments
https://www.irvinetimes.com/news/19654518.north-ayrshire-facial-recognition-schools-pay-lunch/
https://www.mishcon.com/news/facial-recognition-technology-in-schools
Page info
Published: October 2021
Last updated: March 2022