Poll: Texas Students to be monitored with microchips.

[Heronblade]

So how quick before the shit security of some two bit private agency leaks the personal information of children on the internet? I always love blind faith in the government picked agencies people have, especially in two years when the contract goes to the lowest bidder to save a few hundred bucks.

What personal information? How long on average students take to get from class to class? Or maybe how often a particular student plays hooky?

Ooh, scary stalker material there.

Yes the ID transmitter number for individual students would be very scary stalker material, since you know they could use it to track that individual on their way home or even around school. Couple that with finding out a student always plays hooky on Monday, or maybe that they always go to the girls bathroom at 9:20am in the morning.

You'd have to be an absolute idiot to not see the dangers of broadcasting the movement and location of school children.

You seem to be confusing these things with something along the lines of a GPS transponder. RFID chips don't broadcast anything at all, they merely allow an EMF field to read embedded data. The school's system would merely be able to tell when a student passes by specific access points with a sensor preinstalled, IE, when they pass in or out of a room.

Someone attempting to track a student's specific movements with the things would have to tag along from maybe five feet away while lugging a piece of heavy equipment. Somehow I think that would be a bit less effective than simply watching them.

How does them being at school change anything? Being tracked is being tracked. If i went to a university that required me to use an ID that tracked my movements I would demand a refund an never return, because it is stupid and they have no reason to care where I am.

Your university is not legally and ethically obligated to keep track of its students and ensure their safety. You are an adult, and presumably are responsible for your own ass.

Your typical K-12 school, on the other hand, is responsible for exactly that, they have an obligation to keep track of those who attend it. The system in the OP is at least in theory merely somewhat more effective at that job than others already in place.

Let me put it this way, let's say you were to hire a babysitter for your children, and go out and enjoy yourself. When you return, the kids are nowhere in sight, and the babysitter isn't doing anything to find them. Are you going to be fine with this situation? After all, your kids didn't have their right to privacy violated by the babysitter keeping track of them.

 

[neonsword13-ops]

Aaaaaand...all the kid has to do is take the ID badge off, and leave it in the bathroom. Wow....such an effective means of tracking people.

That would mean... a seven and a half hour shit.

Oh my.

I would feel sorry for the kid getting written up for that.

OT: Couldn't you just leave it in classroom and dabble about? Then when it's time for the next period, just pick up the id and throw it in the next class?

Seems like a broken system to me.

 

[launchpadmcqwak]

my god...MEGADETH was right!!!

 

[NiPah]

snip

You seem to be confusing these things with something along the lines of a GPS transponder. RFID chips don't broadcast anything at all, they merely allow an EMF field to read embedded data. The school's system would merely be able to tell when a student passes by specific access points with a sensor preinstalled, IE, when they pass in or out of a room.

Someone attempting to track a student's specific movements with the things would have to tag along from maybe five feet away while lugging a piece of heavy equipment. Somehow I think that would be a bit less effective than simply watching them.

They do, by their name they are transmitting a radio frequency, the EMF field is just another name for the field of radio waves being sent out passively by the device. These are pocket based RFID cards meaning that they will have a pretty high powered signal to talk with the receivers. Also those "bulky receivers" are about 400$, smaller then a cell phone, and can pick up a signal from about 600 feet away outside or 250 inside. They also have most costly versions that put the signal on a GPS device, and thats just the civilian model.

 

[gmaverick019_v1legacy]

seeing as your at school anyways, and it is a public government run facility, i don't see the problem...if anything they could have an adult to follow around all the students all day if they wanted to, but instead they are just putting a small tracker on you just for a location, that's it, you could be running ass naked through the halls and they wouldn't know by the tracker.

hell most cell phones these days already do that..

oh gosh, if results come out for this, can't wait to LOL at all the slackers who go out to skip periods or take smoke/drink breaks out back and get caught for it.

 

[Heronblade]

Aaaaaand...all the kid has to do is take the ID badge off, and leave it in the bathroom. Wow....such an effective means of tracking people.

That would mean... a seven and a half hour shit.

Oh my.

I would feel sorry for the kid getting written up for that.

OT: Couldn't you just leave it in classroom and dabble about? Then when it's time for the next period, just pick up the id and throw it in the next class?

Seems like a broken system to me.

Yeah, I don't get the people yelling about violation of privacy, but the system would be incredibly easy to spoof. Even if the school was very good about making sure the kids keep the ID cards on them, removing the RFID chip from the card and putting it wherever you like would be all too easy. Such as in the backpack of a more responsible student with the same classes as you.

 

[TK421]

How exactly is this an infringement on someone's freedom? What, exactly, is so disgusting about someone in administration being able to actually find a student while they're at school? If they were monitoring anything more than simple physical location, I might be inclined to agree with you, but as it is...

My problem with it is that it's too close to the line. As it is now, there is nothing wrong with it, but they are gonna want to push it farther and farther until no one has any privacy left. I'm against it because I don't want them going further later.

 

[Adam Jensen_v1legacy]

Constitution means nothing in America these days. It's more and more like an Orwellian dystopia every day.

 

[370999]

No this is a hideous idea it is simply an unacceptable invasion of privacy.

Students have privacy? When did that happen?

Aren't American kids legally required to get an education until a certain age?

I'm sorry but I just can't see this as the horrendous violation of privacy that others have. This isn't a compulsorily fashion item for everyone in Texas, it's one school's attempt to make sure they can better know where kids are.

A stupid attempt, but that's all it is.

 

[Muspelheim]

"Policemen in Texas always work in groups of three."

"They do? Why?"

"Well, one to read, one to write and one to keep an eye on the intellectuals."

 

[Heronblade]

snip

They do, by their name they are transmitting a radio frequency, the EMF field is just another name for the field of radio waves being sent out passively by the device. These are pocket based RFID cards meaning that they will have a pretty high powered signal to talk with the receivers. Also those "bulky receivers" are about 400$, smaller then a cell phone, and can pick up a signal from about 600 feet away outside or 250 inside. They also have most costly versions that put the signal on a GPS device, and thats just the civilian model.

While they are intimately related, there's a wee bit of a difference between a magnetic field and a radio signal, please learn it.

The tag/receiver combination you are thinking of is the wrong type. RFID tags designed to be detected from more than 1-2 meters require their own internal power supply and emit their own signal rather than "echoing" one, they also don't rely on an external EMF.

The kind placed in identification cards however have no internal power supply, produce no signal at all until powered by an external magnetic field produced by the sensor, and tend to have a maximum effective range of approximately 1.5 meters, at least using standard receiver units. The limitation is mainly in terms of field strength, EMF fields are limited by the inverse square law, meaning they die off very quickly with distance.

You're tying to compare a cellphone sized powered electronic device to an unpowered chip approximately the size of a grain of rice.

A completely passive RFID tag can in theory be triggered from any distance, but in order to do so, you have to put more and more juice into the magnetic field. If 1.5 meters is the normal max, going out to three meters requires four times the energy, Twelve meters requires sixty-four times the original input, etc, etc. By the time the field is strong enough to effect the chip from any real distance, you have another problem aside from a skyrocketing electric bill, you're sitting next to an electromagnet more than strong enough to f*** with your receiver or any other electronics you have on your person. In addition, the triggered signal output by these chips is typically quite weak. I don't have specific data on the actual strength of the return signal, but I do know that line of sight is nearly critical, even from short range. (The human body, clothing, etc. don't reduce a radio signal by enough to be counted.)

 

[flames09]

Is it just me or is society getting more stupid every time I look away?

 

[Something Amyss]

Aren't American kids legally required to get an education until a certain age?

Yep. And in school, some of their rights are diminished. Privacy is one of them. Which is why I cannot really consider this an exercise in invasion of privacy.

 

[370999]

Aren't American kids legally required to get an education until a certain age?

Yep. And in school, some of their rights are diminished. Privacy is one of them. Which is why I cannot really consider this an exercise in invasion of privacy.

As it would be a fucking nightmare if privacy wasn't diminished. Kids would just going walking of and no one would be allowed to challenge that.

Hell, imagine if you had to ask a kid if they wanted to go to school? Nine times out of ten they would refuse (I wouldn't but then I really liked school).

 

[370999]

I'm sorry but I just can't see this as the horrendous violation of privacy that others have. This isn't a compulsorily fashion item for everyone in Texas, it's one school's attempt to make sure they can better know where kids are.

Why would they need to know where kids are? It's irrelevant as long as their study results aren't negatively affected too badly.

Have you ever talked to most 14 year old kids? They tend to like to ditch school. So it's useful to be able to stop then walking off.

There is also the fact that the school is responsible for these kids. If there is a fire, it's good to have a clue where they are.

 

[Heronblade]

Why would pupils need monitoring? As long as they don't skip lessons or go wandering about all day, everything will be fine.

I'm sorry but I just can't see this as the horrendous violation of privacy that others have. This isn't a compulsorily fashion item for everyone in Texas, it's one school's attempt to make sure they can better know where kids are.

Why would they need to know where kids are? It's irrelevant as long as their study results aren't negatively affected too badly.

A large portion of a typical student body does skip lessons and wander about all day, and yes, their study results are affected very badly by it.

I don't think RFID chips are the answer, but keeping better tabs on what students are up to, and being ready to kick their ass back into gear if necessary, would help.

Of course, the school system has bigger problems in my opinion. We can't at present really waste our time on those volunteering to be left behind.

 

[EightGaugeHippo]

If they're schools in rough innercity areas... Then yes, ensuring that all students can be accounted for during school times is a good thing. However if this is being implemented in anywhere else, then no. Although I'm all for making sure stundents are safe, no matter where the school is, micro chips are abit far.

 

[370999]

Have you ever talked to most 14 year old kids? They tend to like to ditch school. So it's useful to be able to stop then walking off.

No, they pretty much don't do that. And the few exceptions who do, won't be stopped by such a system, because their running away is caused by other external issues. Trying to repress them and kick them into the fold without resorting those issues is pointless and will just cause more extreme rebelling behaviour.

There is also the fact that the school is responsible for these kids. If there is a fire, it's good to have a clue where they are.

That's not an argument. Not letting kids run off the premises during lessons is sufficient for that responsibility. Also there's no conceivable advantage to spying on all pupil's every move in that respect.

Right I don't want to get stuck in a quagmire here, I've made it clear that I don't think microchips is a good way to deal with this. My preference is for the traditional ways to deal with this i.e teachers.

So the argument here is that it's a violation of privacy.