An anonymous reader quotes a report from The Register: In North Ayrshire Council, a Scottish authority encompassing the Isle of Arran, nine schools are set to begin processing meal payments for school lunches using facial scanning technology. The authority and the company implementing the technology, CRB Cunninghams, claim the system will help reduce queues and is less likely to spread COVID-19 than card payments and fingerprint scanners, according to the Financial Times. Speaking to the publication, David Swanston, the MD of supplier CRB Cunninghams, said the cameras verify the child’s identity against “encrypted faceprint templates,” and will be held on servers on-site at the 65 schools that have so far signed up. He added: “In a secondary school you have around about a 25-minute period to serve potentially 1,000 pupils. So we need fast throughput at the point of sale.” He told the paper that with the system, the average transaction time was cut to five seconds per pupil. The system has already been piloted in 2020 at Kingsmeadow Community School in Gateshead, England. North Ayrshire council said 97 per cent of parents had given their consent for the new system, although some said they were unsure whether their children had been given enough information to make their decision. Seemingly unaware of the controversy surrounding facial recognition, education solutions provider CRB Cunninghams announced its introduction of the technology in schools in June as the “next step in cashless catering.”

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Source: Slashdot – Give Us Your Biometric Data To Get Your Lunch In 5 Seconds, UK Schools Tell Children