Surprise! Your "Permanent Record" From School, Really Is Permanent

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Is it me, or is England getting way too paranoid? Word now, that some schools on that side of the pond are checking up on their students using facial recognition cameras.  Let's go over that again: schools are checking up on their students, using facial recognition cameras.

England already is (in)famous for having a security camera for every 14 people. You can't drive into downtown London, without a series of cameras photographing your license plate. Every single vehicle. Every day. An article in the London Daily Mail newspaper reports that every Brit gets his or her picture taken approximately 3,000 times per week. That's more than 400 times each day.

Facial recognition for school kids? They plant their  face on a sweaty chin bar, and a camera scans them, demands a PIN #, then lets them know if they have any "special messages." Here's a special message: they're kids! The schools are happy, because they get 'much more information," in much less time. If that were the real benefit, we could be all for it. But exactly how much information does the school need? Little Ian is either late for class, or he's not. Now, any hacker in the world will be able to find out that he was late... and had a scrape on his cheek...  20 years from now. Talk about going on your permanent record.