Nomark Ministries

Concerns Raised Over Tracking Students With Chips

HOUSTON -- A movement is under way in Austin to limit how school districts can use small chips to track the movement of children, Local 2 Investigates reported Monday.

Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) chips are now embedded in the student identification cards at two Houston-area school districts, allowing sensors to detect exactly where kids are moving on buses or in specific areas of schools.

"I think it's just like an invasion of privacy," said Spring High School senior Tara Bailey, 17.

The Spring Independent School Districtis viewed as a model of using the technology to monitor attendance of its students. The district has scanners installed on 13 of its 36 campuses, allowing records to be kept of when a student steps onto a bus, when he walks into the front door of the school and when he enters certain areas of the school building.

The district said no personal information is stored on the so-called smart tag being carried by its students, and only certain district personnel can access the data created when students' movements are monitored.

The Santa Fe Independent School Districtin Galveston County also started using the technology to monitor attendance this year.

State Rep. Lois Kolkhorst, R-Brenham, has introduced a bill that would limit how districts can deploy the technology because of what she sees as potential abuses.

"We are in a technology explosion," she said. "We do not know where it's going in the future. I just want children and parents to know that, over time, you don't want to see that we've gradually become where it's OK that government knows where we are at all times, or the district knows where we are at all times. The information is very, very sensitive."

She said one school district even said they can monitor children's eating habits with the RFID chips and she's afraid that information about a child's movements could be sold to companies who want to target children for marketing.

"We don't know who owns the data, how much data would be on those cards, when is the data turned off, when are the children not wearing the RFID tags, could this be used in some kind of nefarious kind of manner," said Kolkhorst.

Since districts are required to release some information under public records laws, she said a major corporation could cull through RFID data to send coupons to children who are detected leaving campus for lunch each day, as one example.

"I just think that in America, we've always been very fond of our liberties. Our nation was founded on our individual liberties and that over time, technology can become a foe in a way that it modifies our behavior, and it also begins to take away some of the empowerment of the individual," said Kolkhorst.

Bailey, the Spring High School senior, said the notion of receiving coupons in the mail because of a chip she's wearing is troubling.

"I'd be like, 'How did you know that? Who gave you that information?' That would be just weird. That would be really weird. That would make me feel a little on edge," said Bailey.

The mother of another Spring High School student, who asked that her name be withheld, said, "As a parent, I think it has its pros to actually be able to know where your child is at, but as far as other people being able to obtain such information, I think that's kind of scary."

Her daughter, a 16-year-old ninth-grader said, "People could know exactly where we go after school or where we live because we take those IDs home with us."

She said she has always wondered how a stranger or predator could use the chips to stalk young girls. "That is pretty disturbing and uncomfortable," she said.

Kolkhorst said she was compelled to introduce legislation because anyone can purchase a scanner on the Internet to capture data transmitted by the chips.

"It's been proven with very low-tech that you can gather great information off of the RFID. RFID is everywhere," Kolkhorst said.

Matt Simpson with the American Civil Liberties Union Texassaid some parents may object to their child being monitored in such a way for religious purposes.

"I think there's a variety of issues that really haven't been worked through appropriately yet with RFID. When we're using technology like this that's really invasive, technology that could potentially violate privacy, we should only do so once we've carefully considered the civil liberties impact and the impact on privacy, and quite frankly the safety and other concerns," said Simpson.

Even an industry group for RFID manufacturers, the Association for Automatic Identification and Mobilitysaid that various security concerns must be addressed by any school district that uses the technology.

In a written response to questions from Local 2 Investigates, the association saidthat people should receive adequate notice that RFID technology is being used.

The industry group said that school districts often fail to encrypt the transmission of data due to cost concerns. The group said technology is available to encrypt the data being transmitted by students, but most districts do not use it.

The Association for Automatic Identification and Mobility also said that districts could safeguard against the possibility of scanners being used to track down children by enclosing the devices in special secure cases that are carried by students. Most districts do not use such cases.

Finally, the statement from AIM acknowledged that some religious concerns exist because RFID is seen as the "Mark of the Beast" by some.

The bill now before the Texas Legislaturewould not ban the technology, but would merely require districts to fully notify parents about its use and allow parents to opt out of the technology.

"I just think that parents should know more about their children and how they are being tracked or not being tracked," she said.

The Spring Independent School District declined to answer questions on camera from Local 2 Investigates but did send a written statement.

The district said its data is kept in a secure computer system and the chips cannot be used to track children away from campus.

Spring ISD has collected $304,000 in grant money known as Average Daily Attendance (ADA) due to the chips being used for tracking student attendance.

The Santa Fe ISD has recovered between $25,000 and $30,000 in ADA funding as well, getting credit for every time its RFID system locates a student on campus who had previously been marked as absent.

At the Santa Fe School District, Hanssard said, "We've addressed any concerns that parents have and at present, that's been very limited."

She said most parents who seem confused about how the chips work are quickly satisfied once the technology is explained to them.

Kolkhorst's office said Monday that her bill has not yet been granted a full hearing before the legislature since it was introduced. The bill has not advanced on the legislative calendar since it was introduced in February.