If a student then tries to buy an item that the parents dislike, a big red circle with an X through it pops up on the register. The cashiers then are supposed to tell the students it's no go. But school districts in New York, California, Florida, Georgia and elsewhere say they're interested in trying the technology, Johns said. With this system, students use their fingers just like everyone else, and only the computer knows that they get their lunch for free. Privacy Concerns Despite these advantages, some, including the American Civil Liberties Union, have serious concerns about the use of fingerprinting for casual uses in schools.
Fingerprints are extraordinarily personal.
This sort of uneasiness over of the intimacy of biometrics is one of the technology's biggest barriers to everyday use, Nanavati said. But Nanavati believes privacy concerns can be addressed. The lunch system, for example, doesn't copy a full fingerprint image that the police could use, but rather just a series of ridges in the finger that are converted into a series of numbers. Those numbers, Johns stresses, cannot be rebuilt into a fingerprint image the police could use. We're not interested in invading kids' privacy, just in giving them an easier way to pay for lunch.