Task 1. Match the definitions with corresponding phrases in the text. See solutions in comments.
1. a country where citizens are watched and followed
2. association, memories (bad or good)
3. it’s safer if you hand over less data
4. making a copy of the soft side of a person’s finger
5. not similar to in the sense that …
6. paid for by the state
7. photo taken by the police of arrested people
8. problem
9. react to
10. show up for classes
11. the place for students to have lunch
12. the process of confirming a person’s identity
13. there is no question about it
14. to bring up (children)
15. to get used to it
16. to increase
17. to make sy capable of sg
18. to make use of, employ
19. to solve
20. to stay away from something negative
21. widespread
Task 2. Post a comment to this entry, and say whether you personally approve or disapprove of this technology and practice.
Students face controversial new technology in lunch line
Starting this fall, some students will buy their lunch simply by looking at a web camera in the school cafeteria and saying their name, thanks to a food service company that is tapping face and voice recognition technology.
The most prevalent biometric authentication used in schools today is fingerprint scanning, but companies such as Food Service Solutions Inc. say they want to avoid the stigma attached to fingerprinting—especially in schools. "You bring up the word 'fingerprinting,' and there's a connotation," said Mitch Johns, president of Food Service Solutions. In real life and on television, only "bad guys" are fingerprinted after being arrested by the police, Johns said. "We feel like we're a leader in bringing new technology to the market, and we feel the new system is a more acceptable device," he said.
Face- and voice-recognition technology lets students buy meals at school without cash, passwords, or meal tickets. It also prevents students who participate in the free or reduced-priced lunch program from being identified by their peers. "It will definitely reduce the stigma attached to subsidized lunch programs. No one will know," Buechler said.
Johns said voice recognition keeps pass cards from being forgotten, stolen, or lost. It also remedies the problem of students giving out their PINs. "Our technology enables kids to get their meals without a password, without PINs, and without cards. There's absolutely nothing for a child to pass to another child," Buechler said.
It's also an easier system for young students. "If you have a kindergarten student, you have to teach them and train them to remember and use the number," Johns said. If students fool around or try to beat the system, they just won't get lunch.
BioID's face and voice recognition system "is unlike other biometrics systems in that it protects users' privacy," Buechler said. An algorithm built into the software program prevents the data from being used for anything else.
But privacy advocates say face- and voice-recognition technologies raise great privacy concerns—and the less information you give to others, the better. There's not much schools can do to keep this kind of data from the police. "Undoubtedly, law enforcement will enter and ask the school for the student data as soon as a crime occurs," he said. Earlier this year, for example, at Super Bowl XXXV in
Hoofnagle worries that by using this technology in school, children will become accustomed to it and will give out this kind of personal information without thinking twice. If they grow up using this technology, perhaps they won't question why the grocery store and government offices use it as well.
"With the use of biometrics, you begin to breed children that are used to the system," Hoofnagle said. "Especially when you start with young people, you can easily begin to [develop] a surveillance state."
Johns doesn't consider this to be an issue in a school setting, because students choose to use the system and are aware that the scanning is taking place. "In my opinion, giving over [your social security number] can cause far more damage than being in a school lunch line," Johns said. "This type of technology is already here, and its use is going to be more prevalent." Eventually, Johns said, Food Service Solutions will expand the use of voice- and face-recognition technology to the library and for taking attendance.
Before that happens, the company will see how students respond to the technology. "We will be looking for acceptance from the students, because they are going to have to use it," Johns said.
Exercise created by Kisdobos using:
http://www.eschoolnews.com/news/top-news/index.cfm?i=33620&CFID=3197310&CFTOKEN=33849380
