Moorebank High School installs fingerprint scanners outside toilets

Students at a Sydney high school are being made to scan their fingerprints if they want to use the toilet— a move which has upset parents and left privacy experts concerned.

A Sydney high school is making students who want to visit the toilet present their fingerprints in a bid to track their movements to stamp out vandalism in a move that has upset parents.

The decision to rollout the tech for toilet access has also shocked privacy experts who say there is no excuse to take biometric data from students which could be vulnerable to hackers who want personal information.

Moorebank High principal Vally Grego wrote to parents earlier this year telling them that Posiflex Kiosks Biometrics would be rolled out this term.

“The system will roll out in Term 3 for the external student toilets only,” she told parents earlier this year.

“We are introducing this system to monitor students’ movement during class time and to reduce the incidents of vandalism. We will then investigate the upgrade to the toilets.”

Moorebank High School has installed fingerprint scanners outside student toilets.

One parent with several children who attend the school said students were called in to each supply their fingerprints and that parents hadn’t been properly consulted about the move— a fact contested by the Department of Education.

“There was only that tiny paragraph in the newsletter, no notes sent home, no email, only a focus group no one knew about... it wasn’t communicated properly by the school, there’s a real lack of transparency,” the parent said.

The newsletter, where the scool announced the technology would "monitor students' movement during class time and to reduce the incidents of vandalism".

“It just feels a little extreme and concerning with the level of surveillance and data being collected about our children.”

The parent added: “It just doesn’t feel real and begs the question, what’s next in terms of monitoring and surveillance of our kids... surely vandalism doesn’t justify collecting biometric data.

“These systems come at a significant cost so I’ll be asking the school to keep parents informed about the effectiveness of these scanners so we know if the spend is actually being justified.”

The scanners will need to be used for students to access the bathroom. Picture: Christopher Furlong

Australian Privacy Foundation chair David Vaile said there were risks when it came to creating a databank of children’s biometric data— which could be hacked and used for identity theft in the years to come.

“The key thing is if the biometrics is abused, you have the minority report situation, you have a life long security hazard about your biometric identifier,” he said.

“You can’t revoke your fingerprint or your eyeball and the whole industry is very reluctant to discuss what happens when something goes wrong.

“The students are being trained to put up and tolerate and accept as normal the idea that they’re being treated like criminals.”

Australian Privacy Foundation Chair David Vaile. Picture: Anna Kucera

A Department of Education spokeswoman said the measure was used to stop vandalism.

“Moorebank High School is not tracking how often students use the toilets. The record of who has entered the toilets is only accessed when instances of vandalism have been reported,” she said.

“Parents were consulted and ratified the decision before the fingerprint scanners were implemented. All parents have been notified.”

She said students could opt to use an access card instead.