Before long, patrons wanting to use Naperville (IL)Public Library System computers without a hassle will have to prove their identity with a fingerprint.
The three-library system this week signed a $40,646 contract with a local company, U.S. Biometrics Corp., to install fingerprint scanners on 130 computers with Internet access or a time limit on usage. Privacy advocates fear misuse of the data.
Chicago Trib has the story.
Library Cards
Why not just use this technology to replace library cards in general. Then you don’t have to lug your card. I don’t see any privacy issue for check-outs because all the fingerprint does is verify who you are. Isn’t this what a library card is supposed to do anyway?
1984 Hath Arrived
This fingerprint scanning technology was just introduced at our local grocery store as a way to cut down on check and credit card fraud… But anyone else feel intensely uncomfortable with
this…I keep envisioning one of those dark sci-fi totalitarian regimes that are gonna take over mind, body and soul…all…
Where does all the fingerprint data go, who will have access to it and what will they be doing with it? Yes, I know there is also voice id, eye iris scanning, face scanning…maybe these make us safer, or is that just the sales pitch?… somehow it feels like its doing the opposite…
I think that 40 grand could be spent more wisely.
Why not hire a new library assistant or stay open a few more hours?
Re:Library Cards
It is only dangerous if the library uses the fingerprint scanning technology to initiate a log of all websites surfed by the patrons.
I am sure no library would do this, but the patrons will think it.
If they scan my finger print !…
If they scan my fingerprint then they could keep my finger print on file. If that happens the world will come to an end.
Oh, wait no the ATF, the school board, the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, the Sheriff’s Office, the Securities and Exchange Commission all have my fingerprints on file for various licenses and job applications I have made. The world did not end.
I see no problem with it whatsoever it simply makes it more convenient for the patron. Although I do think 40 large could have been better spent on books.
Slashdot Had It
Slashdot +5 Comments
Here Kitty Kitty Kitty
So why does this remind me of the cat who carried around a finger in his mouth in The Lady Killers? The cat should have headed to the library.
Just imagine the E-bay traffic in fingers for sale…
And I suppose the technology to cover yours with someone else’s already exists,,,can I get a celebs prints?
Re:If they scan my finger print !…
Wow. The only place that has my prints is the CA DMV, and I thought long and hard about not renewing my driver’s license when they started requiring it.
Note that all the folks who have your prints (ATF, the school board, the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, the Sheriff’s Office, the SEC) are interested in law enforcement. To identify you when you break the law and they want to catch you. The library wants it to IDENTIFY you, cuz, you know, why not?
There is no reason in the world for the library to have my prints, or my DNA, or my social security number, on file. They get my name. They get my address. They get proof of these peices of information. The library needs these to prove that I am in fact a resident of their tax district, and to contact me when they have a book for me or I have kept one of theirs too long. They don’t need anything else, and if they start requiring more, then people will stop using the service.
All sidestepping the question of why the Naperville library is keeping log-on records in the first place (they couldn’t have turned then over when subpeona’ed if they didn’t keep them). They are not required to keep, and “privacy and security” conscious libraries (to use Director West’s ‘middle name’) do not keep patron records for just that reason.
The folks at Naperville PL don’t strike me as folks I’d want to trust with my identity, thanks.
How to fake a fingerprint
And I suppose the technology to cover yours with someone else’s already exists
It’s not as hard as you’d think. A little superglue, a scanner or camera, an overhead transparency, a laser printer, wood glue, theatrical glue, and voila! New fingerprint.
(via Boing Boing)