FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Tuesday, February 8, 2005

PRESS CONTACT:
C?dric Laurant
EPIC Policy Counsel - 202-483-1140 ext. 114

Privacy Rights Are At Risk

Parents and Civil Liberties Groups Urge School District to Terminate
Use of Tracking Devices

Mandatory Student ID Cards Contain RFIDs

WASHINGTON, D.C. - Parents in a northern California public school
district and civil liberties groups are urging a school district to
terminate the mandatory use of Radio Frequency Identification tags
(RFIDs) by students. A letter was sent today expressing alarm at the
Brittan School District's use of mandatory ID badges that include a
RFID device that tracks the students' movements. The device transmits
private information to a computer on campus whenever a student passes
under one of the scanners. The ID badges also include the student's
name, photo, grade, school name, class year and the four-digit school
ID number. Students are required to prominently display the badges by
wearing them around the neck at all times.

"Forcing my child to be tracked with a RFID device - without our
consent or knowledge - is a complete invasion of our privacy," said
Michael and Dawn Cantrall. "Our 7th grader came home wearing the ID
badge prominently displayed around her neck - if someone wants to harm
my child, the mandatory school ID card has just made that task
easier." The Cantralls filed a formal complaint against the Brittan
Elementary School Board in Sutter, California on January 30th after
meeting with several school officials.

Jeffrey and Michele Tatro, parents of a thirteen-year-old student at
Brittan Elementary School, added: "It is our goal that no child in the
United States be tagged or tracked. We want it to be stopped here, in
Sutter California, and we don't want any child to be tracked anywhere.
Our children are not pieces of inventory."

In a letter dated February 7, sent to the Brittan Board of Trustees,
the civil liberties group "urge the school board to recognize the
serious safety and civil liberties implications" and call the for the
School Board to "terminate this ill-advised test immediately." The
ACLU of Northern California (ACLU-NC), the Electronic Frontier
Foundation (EFF), and the Washington-based Electronic Privacy
Information Center (EPIC) sent the letter.

"The monitoring of children with RFID tags is comparable to the
tracking of cattle, shipment pallets, or very dangerous criminals in
high-security prisons. Compelling children to be constantly tracked
with RFID-trackable identity badges breaches their right to privacy
and dignity as human beings. Forcing children to wear badges around
their necks displaying such sensitive information as their name,
picture, grade and school exposes them to potential discrimination
since the name of their school may disclose their religious beliefs or
social class," said Cedric Laurant, Policy Counsel with EPIC.

"We are sending the letter today because a school board meeting is
scheduled for tomorrow night and we want to make sure that the
District reconsiders the issue," said Nicole Ozer, Technology and
Civil Liberties Policy Director of the ACLU-NC. "RFID technology is
inappropriate for use in schools. The badges jeopardize the safety and
security of children by broadcasting identity and location information
to anyone with a chip reader and subjects students to demeaning
tracking of their movements."

"It is dehumanizing to force these children to wear RFIDs, and their
parents are rightfully outraged," said Electronic Frontier Foundation
senior staff attorney Lee Tien. "We are doing everything we can to
support the parents in this fight to protect student privacy."

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Source: EPIC - http://www.epic.org/privacy/rfid/prs_rls-020705.html


Cheers, Steve..

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