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Comment by antonID | Hacker News Reader

How is this tracking? It's an rfid tag with the serial number on it so that they can scan it to bring up the person in their computer system to do things like pay for lunch, vote in student elections, and scan them when entering a classroom for attendance. I seriously don't understand how this is an evil tracking microchip. Most companies already use these for building access, so I don't see why using it for simple things at school is insane; it isn't a GPS chip, it just gives a serial number when scanned... this isn't some kind of dangerous chip.

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The article explains that someone (a member of Texans for Accountable Government) filed a FOIA request and got the addresses of all the students. From that a little wardriving will give you recognizable RFID tags so you can at least tell if the child is in the home, or in any given location.

Is that unlikely? Yes, very.

You know what I think is more unlikely? Someone actually sneaking into in a case where this ID card would keep them out. I can't imagine a single reason students couldn't just punch a number to do all of those things, and save the school system money that could be better spent on any number of things.

Did her FOIA request involve the serial numbers of the IDs? Or just a request for all the students in the school? The article doesn't specify. RT is a hugely biased news source that tries anything to get bad press on the US, so I don't trust it as a reliable source.

If you have someone's address and an RFID reader, and they have an RFID chip, then what do you need the RFID serial number for? If you're already reading, then just go to their house and scan. If you get multiple, then go again during the day when you expect them to be at school.

That will get the vast majority.

And yes, I totally get that RT has no problem pushing bullshit; I agree. Doesn't mean we should discount it completely. We could miss a chance to improve.

Perhaps the students should exchange cards. let the administration sort them out.

Students are devious. If you punch my ID monday, I'll punch yours Friday. (in a non-creepy way, of course)

Wouldn't that require them to be in all of the same classes? You would have to scan them into every class.

wait a minute, if we're in the same classes, and I want to stay home, and i give you my card (you now have 2, yours and mine) and I get checked in along with you. the next day, I go to class with both cards, and you stay home. Perfect attendance for both of us!

This too shall pass.

I give it about 3 days before the students figure out they can "attend" class by giving the tag to their friend who is also taking the class.

The teachers will finally catch on when there is only one student in class, with 30 tags in his pocket :-)

I used to work in a high school where the students did something very similar. They needed their ID cards to reserve a computer in the library, and they'd have one kid collect multiple ID cards and make reservations for his friends, or they'd borrow each others' ID cards and hope we wouldn't notice.

It's RT. They tend to err on the side of paranoia and conspiracy, so it isn't a surprise that they worded this in the particular way that they did.

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