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AIAAIC-0773

Polish primary school fined for using fingerprint data to verify meal payments

Gdansk Primary School No. 2, in northern Poland, was fined EUR 4,600 by UODO, the country's data privacy regulator, for processing students' fingerprint data to verify their school meal payments. The school had been using fingerprints to verify whether pupils had paid for their meals since 2015, with system being used on 680 children in the current academic year, while four children were processed using 'an alternative identification system'. According to UODO, the system was unfair, and 'significantly disproportionate' to the task. It also said that other, more appropriate, forms of identification could have been used. The President of UODO ordered the erasure of the students' fingerprints and the cessation of further collection of personal data . System 🤖 Unknown Developer: Unknown Country: Poland Sector: Education Purpose: Verify meal payments Technology: Fingerprint biometrics Issue: Accountability; Cons ent; Privacy/surveillance; Proportionality Legal, regulatory 👩🏼‍⚖️ UODO. Decyzja European Data Protection Board. Fine for processing students’ fingerprints imposed on a school

Date it happened
2020-03-01
Organisation involved
Gdansk Primary School No. 2
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