[Politech] Florida school scans visitors' IDs for predators [priv]

From: Declan McCullagh (declan@private)
Date: Thu Jul 07 2005 - 21:24:41 PDT


[What if your ID isn't in the database? What if you're Canadian? What if 
you're a sexual predator who makes a fake Canadian ID? --Declan]


-------- Original Message --------
Subject: Scanning IDs for school access
Date: Wed,  6 Jul 2005 05:26:03 -0700
From: Dwayne C. Smith <chaz@private>
Reply-To: Dwayne C. Smith <chaz@private>
To: declan@private

Declan,


McNeal Elementary School in Manatee County, FL will begin scanning the
driver's license or other state-issued ID of visitors in an attempt to
single out sexual predators.

http://www.bradenton.com/mld/bradenton/12063817.htm


I don't recall seeing this issue covered on Politech before.  I
understand the attempt to protect our children, but is this another
well-intended effort that moves us closer to having to "show our
papers" to go about our daily lives?

Scan the IDs of people who don't have children at the school? OK by me.
It would seem simple enough to issue a 'parent ID' when the kid(s)
enroll for the year.  This at least would preclude the need to deliver
a state-issued ID - possibly containing your SSN - upon arrival.

One other thing - what happens to the scanned data?  Consider a vendor
who services several schools. Does s/he run the risk of being included
in some database of potential sex offenders because an aggregated
database makes it appear that he has an unnatural interest in school
children?
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